Great Oak Capital Partners LLC Takes Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Great Oak Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 2,286 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $860,000. Microsoft accounts for about 0.5% of Great Oak Capital Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 19th biggest holding.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Financial Security Advisor Inc. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Financial Security Advisor Inc. now owns 27,270 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $10,255,000 after purchasing an additional 452 shares in the last quarter. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. now owns 24,887 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,359,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. Rappaport Reiches Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 14.9% in the 4th quarter. Rappaport Reiches Capital Management LLC now owns 8,213 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,089,000 after purchasing an additional 1,067 shares in the last quarter. Bayesian Capital Management LP increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 60.1% in the 4th quarter. Bayesian Capital Management LP now owns 48,500 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $18,238,000 after purchasing an additional 18,200 shares in the last quarter. Finally, RNC Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC now owns 69,053 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $25,967,000 after purchasing an additional 6,484 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MSFT. StockNews.com lowered Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Microsoft from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on Microsoft from $465.00 to $489.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, May 22nd. Finally, Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, March 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $465.83.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.2 %

NASDAQ MSFT traded up $0.99 during trading on Friday, hitting $442.57. The stock had a trading volume of 13,581,985 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,602,950. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a current ratio of 1.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.29 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.32, a P/E/G ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.89. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $309.45 and a one year high of $443.40. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $417.71 and a 200 day simple moving average of $404.64.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 37.54%. 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 firm posted $2.45 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 11.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.97%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 322 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $416.60, for a total transaction of $134,145.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 47,255 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,686,433. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $425.68, for a total transaction of $10,642,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 104,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $44,674,690.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 322 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $416.60, for a total transaction of $134,145.20. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 47,255 shares in the company, valued at $19,686,433. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 25,566 shares of company stock valued at $10,877,535. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.