Sterling Investment Management LLC Has $4.58 Million Stock Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Sterling Investment Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.2% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 10,887 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 26 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 3.2% of Sterling Investment Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 8th largest position. Sterling Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $4,580,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,920,047,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth $9,625,201,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Microsoft by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 664,908,939 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $250,032,357,000 after buying an additional 15,701,937 shares during the last quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. purchased a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth $4,000,376,000. Finally, FMR LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 2.7% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 215,874,152 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $68,162,263,000 after acquiring an additional 5,762,902 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on MSFT shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. BNP Paribas raised shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $471.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, March 15th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $455.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $452.61.

Microsoft Stock Down 1.0 %

NASDAQ MSFT traded down $4.07 on Monday, hitting $402.25. The stock had a trading volume of 19,566,752 shares, compared to its average volume of 22,087,611. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $303.40 and a 52-week high of $430.82. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $414.45 and its 200 day moving average price is $389.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.23. The stock has a market cap of $2.99 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.89.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a return on equity of 37.54% and a net margin of 36.43%. The firm had revenue of $61.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.86 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.45 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 11.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 25.97%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total value of $18,530,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 574,129 shares in the company, valued at $236,414,839.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Profile

Microsoft Corporation develops and supports software, services, devices and solutions worldwide. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers office, exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft viva, and Microsoft 365 copilot; and office consumer services, such as Microsoft 365 consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other office services.