Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) CMO Takeshi Numoto Sells 1,000 Shares

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total transaction of $414,720.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 57,511 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,850,961.92. This trade represents a 1.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Takeshi Numoto also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, September 10th, Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of Microsoft stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.04, for a total value of $1,027,600.00.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT traded up $1.79 during trading on Monday, hitting $418.79. 27,148,254 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 20,571,139. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $421.94 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $426.30. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $362.90 and a 52-week high of $468.35. The company has a market cap of $3.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.91.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.99 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan on Monday, September 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the software giant to purchase up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.79%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 27.39%.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 667,987,038 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $281,035,506,000 after buying an additional 3,078,099 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 165,024,812 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $70,790,682,000 after acquiring an additional 3,264,648 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its holdings in Microsoft by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 83,571,070 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $35,160,020,000 after acquiring an additional 842,884 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 4.1% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 54,590,791 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $23,490,417,000 after purchasing an additional 2,125,030 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.4% in 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 during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on MSFT shares. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, October 28th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $506.00 to $548.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th. KeyCorp boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $470.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.