Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) is American Trust Investment Advisors LLC’s 4th Largest Position

American Trust Investment Advisors LLC reduced its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 17,630 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 137 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up about 3.4% of American Trust Investment Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest position. American Trust Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $6,630,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. TCI Fund Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth about $4,000,376,000. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. increased its position in Microsoft by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 613,381 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $230,656,000 after purchasing an additional 4,348 shares during the last quarter. Watchman Group Inc. increased its position in Microsoft by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Watchman Group Inc. now owns 15,537 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,843,000 after purchasing an additional 121 shares during the last quarter. Waterloo Capital L.P. increased its position in Microsoft by 71.3% in the 4th quarter. Waterloo Capital L.P. now owns 25,840 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,717,000 after purchasing an additional 10,757 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stonehage Fleming Financial Services Holdings Ltd increased its position in Microsoft by 48.2% in the 4th quarter. Stonehage Fleming Financial Services Holdings Ltd now owns 402,431 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $151,330,000 after purchasing an additional 130,825 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI upped their target price on Microsoft from $475.00 to $485.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on Microsoft from $465.00 to $489.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Microsoft from $455.00 to $465.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $480.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $455.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $452.61.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock traded up $7.28 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $406.32. 29,640,094 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 18,152,042. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 1.20. The firm has a market cap of $3.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.18, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.89. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $295.25 and a 52 week high of $430.82. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $414.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $387.70.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.87% and a net margin of 36.43%. The firm had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.86 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.45 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 11.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 25.97%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 in the company, valued at $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total transaction of $18,530,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 574,129 shares in the company, valued at $236,414,839.62. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total value 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Microsoft

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.