Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) CMO Sells $423,480.00 in Stock

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $423.48, for a total value of $423,480.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 56,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,931,278.28. This represents a 1.74 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

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

• On Monday, December 2nd, Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of Microsoft stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $430.87, for a total value of $1,077,175.00.
• On Friday, November 22nd, Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total value of $414,720.00.
• On Tuesday, September 10th, Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of Microsoft stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.04, for a total value of $1,027,600.00.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.8 %

NASDAQ MSFT traded up $7.52 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $430.98. The stock had a trading volume of 20,184,242 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,556,076. The stock has a market cap of $3.20 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $420.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $426.55. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $362.90 and a 1 year high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its earnings results 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 business had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.99 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Monday, September 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the software giant to repurchase up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 27.39%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Microsoft by 0.5% in the 1st 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. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 165,024,812 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $70,790,682,000 after purchasing an additional 3,264,648 shares during the period. Capital International Investors increased its stake in Microsoft by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 83,571,070 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $35,160,020,000 after buying an additional 842,884 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 4.1% in the 3rd 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 worth $23,490,417,000 after buying an additional 2,125,030 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Microsoft by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 47,229,125 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $20,322,513,000 after buying an additional 652,493 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on MSFT shares. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. DA Davidson downgraded Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th. Oppenheimer downgraded Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $495.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $503.03.

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.