Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) EVP Christopher David Young Sells 7,200 Shares

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total transaction of $3,050,352.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 103,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $423.03 on Wednesday. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $362.90 and a 52-week high of $468.35. The stock has a market cap of $3.15 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.91. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $421.11 and a 200-day moving average of $425.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.30.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.99 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.94 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.78%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 27.39%.

Microsoft announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the software giant to purchase up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 667,987,038 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $281,035,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,078,099 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 83,571,070 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $35,160,020,000 after acquiring an additional 842,884 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Microsoft by 1.4% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 47,229,125 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $20,322,513,000 after purchasing an additional 652,493 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 48,526.1% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 38,501,645 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $16,567,258,000 after purchasing an additional 38,422,466 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 34,511,544 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $15,426,767,000 after buying an additional 97,075 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Wedbush reiterated an “underperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and twenty-six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $503.03.

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.