Arbor Investment Advisors LLC Has $2.79 Million Stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Arbor Investment Advisors LLC reduced its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 10.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 7,428 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 877 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 0.4% of Arbor Investment Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest position. Arbor Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,793,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 40.7% during the 4th quarter. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC now owns 2,334 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $878,000 after purchasing an additional 675 shares in the last quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC now owns 18,160 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,829,000 after buying an additional 497 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 277.8% in the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 7,004,341 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,633,912,000 after acquiring an additional 5,150,160 shares during the last quarter. Priebe Wealth Holdings LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth approximately $823,000. Finally, Private Wealth Group LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth approximately $295,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on MSFT shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $480.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and issued a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, March 15th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $465.00 target price (up from $455.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Finally, KeyCorp assumed coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. They set an “overweight” rating and a $490.00 price target on the stock. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $452.61.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT stock opened at $409.34 on Wednesday. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $306.09 and a 1-year high of $430.82. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $413.84 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $392.05. The firm has a market cap of $3.04 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a return on equity of 37.54% and a net margin of 36.43%. The business had revenue of $61.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.86 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.45 EPS. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 11.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 25.97%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total value of $1,950,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at $22,770,926.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total value of $1,950,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,770,926.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total value of $8,868,941.80. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly 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. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.