Sky Investment Group LLC Has $38.20 Million Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Sky Investment Group LLC trimmed its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 90,805 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 650 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for approximately 7.4% of Sky Investment Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its largest holding. Sky Investment Group LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $38,203,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MSFT. Financial Security Advisor Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Financial Security Advisor Inc. now owns 27,270 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $10,255,000 after buying an additional 452 shares during the period. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Microsoft by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. now owns 24,887 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,359,000 after buying an additional 185 shares during 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. Bailard Inc. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Bailard Inc. now owns 470,301 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $148,497,000 after purchasing an additional 5,366 shares in the last quarter. Finally, RNC Capital Management LLC increased its stake in 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 buying an additional 6,484 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on Microsoft from $465.00 to $489.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $480.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. StockNews.com lowered Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $454.70.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT traded down $3.52 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $427.00. The company had a trading volume of 17,196,191 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,344,988. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.17 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.89. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $416.05 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $397.95. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $309.45 and a twelve month high of $433.60.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 37.54%. The business had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.86 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.45 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 11.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.70%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.97%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction 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 $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.