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

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total transaction of $414,720.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 57,511 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,850,961.92. The trade was a 1.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

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

• 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 transaction of $1,027,600.00.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.4 %

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $418.79 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $421.69 and its two-hundred day moving average is $426.35. The company has a market cap of $3.11 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.91. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $362.90 and a twelve month high of $468.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

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

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

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.79%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 27.39%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on MSFT shares. DA Davidson cut Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $503.03.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Microsoft by 0.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 667,987,038 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $281,035,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,078,099 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 3,264,648 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 842,884 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake 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 worth $23,490,417,000 after buying an additional 2,125,030 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings 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 worth $20,322,513,000 after acquiring an additional 652,493 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.