Johnson Financial Group LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 78.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,217 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 973 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 0.1% of Johnson Financial Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest position. Johnson Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $684,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Microsoft by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 302,541,869 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $101,750,881,000 after acquiring an additional 8,108,943 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 129,107,118 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $43,313,705,000 after purchasing an additional 3,027,306 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $24,401,940,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 57,181,533 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $19,231,292,000 after buying an additional 584,273 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Microsoft by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 39,096,786 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $13,149,038,000 after acquiring an additional 652,526 shares during the period. 69.29% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Microsoft Stock Down 0.6 %
Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $261.47 on Thursday. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $241.51 and a 1 year high of $349.67. The company has a market capitalization of $1.95 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.12, a P/E/G ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $270.44 and a 200-day simple moving average of $277.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 1.78 and a quick ratio of 1.75.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 26th. The software giant reported $2.23 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by ($0.06). Microsoft had a net margin of 36.69% and a return on equity of 43.31%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.17 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 10.14 earnings per share for the current year.
Microsoft Dividend Announcement
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 18th will be given a dividend of $0.62 per share. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.95%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 17th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.73%.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
A number of brokerages have issued reports on MSFT. Guggenheim started coverage on Microsoft in a report on Friday, August 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $292.00 price target for the company. Redburn Partners assumed coverage on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, June 29th. They set a “buy” rating and a $370.00 price target on the stock. Wedbush cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $340.00 to $320.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. set a $320.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, June 9th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on Microsoft from $320.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 27th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $334.31.
Microsoft Company Profile
Microsoft Corporation develops, licenses, and supports software, services, devices, and solutions worldwide. The company operates in three segments: Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft Viva, and Skype for Business; Skype, Outlook.com, OneDrive, and LinkedIn; and Dynamics 365, a set of cloud-based and on-premises business solutions for organizations and enterprise divisions.
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