North Dallas Bank & Trust Co. Takes $7.19 Million Position in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

North Dallas Bank & Trust Co. bought a new position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 14,450 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $7,188,000. Microsoft comprises 5.4% of North Dallas Bank & Trust Co.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its biggest holding.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 51.3% in the second quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Bulwark Capital Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the second quarter worth about $32,000. Westend Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 386.7% during the second quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. University of Illinois Foundation purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 2nd quarter valued at about $50,000. Finally, LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at about $44,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $478.72, for a total transaction of $1,364,352.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 55,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,703,959.04. The trade was a 4.86% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $491.52, for a total transaction of $6,266,880.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 129,349 shares in the company, valued at approximately $63,577,620.48. This trade represents a 8.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.0%

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $478.53 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $3.56 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.07. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-week high of $555.45. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $504.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $502.65. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.65 by $0.48. The company had revenue of $77.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $75.49 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.45% and a net margin of 35.71%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.30 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.91 per share. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.89%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on MSFT. Raymond James Financial reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. BNP Paribas Exane upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $630.00 to $632.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, December 6th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $650.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $632.34.

Microsoft 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.