Strategic Financial Concepts LLC Reduces Stock Position in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Strategic Financial Concepts LLC cut its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 23.8% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,347 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,671 shares during the quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,664,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.6% in the second quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. now owns 166,757 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $82,947,000 after purchasing an additional 993 shares during the last quarter. Crystal Rock Capital Management lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 8.4% during the 2nd quarter. Crystal Rock Capital Management now owns 16,805 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $8,359,000 after buying an additional 1,300 shares during the period. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 74,038 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $36,827,000 after buying an additional 592 shares during the last quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 3.1% in the second quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 162,335 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $80,451,000 after acquiring an additional 4,949 shares during the period. Finally, Frederick Financial Consultants LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 10.5% during the second quarter. Frederick Financial Consultants LLC now owns 4,807 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,391,000 after acquiring an additional 457 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Arete boosted their price target on Microsoft from $700.00 to $710.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Stifel Nicolaus set a $640.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird started coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, November 14th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $600.00 price target on the stock. HSBC lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $643.00 to $648.00 in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $625.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $634.33.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total value of $19,967,640.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 461,597 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $239,402,668.08. The trade was a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.7%

MSFT opened at $490.00 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $3.64 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 1.35. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $509.01 and its 200 day moving average is $501.08. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.65 by $0.48. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.47% and a net margin of 35.71%.The business had revenue of $77.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $75.49 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.30 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 19th will be paid a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 19th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.89%.

Microsoft Company 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.