Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Trading Down 1% on Insider Selling

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s share price dropped 1% during mid-day trading on Friday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $476.34 and last traded at $478.53. Approximately 20,772,746 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 6% from the average daily volume of 22,212,230 shares. The stock had previously closed at $483.47.

Specifically, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,812 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $438.82, for a total value of $1,672,781.84. Following the sale, the insider owned 451,597 shares in the company, valued at $198,169,795.54. This represents a 0.84% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on MSFT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $640.00 to $655.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and set a $650.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets reduced their target price on Microsoft from $640.00 to $630.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $632.34.

Microsoft Price Performance

The company has a 50 day moving average of $504.05 and a 200 day moving average of $502.34. The stock has a market capitalization 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. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.65 by $0.48. The company had revenue of $77.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $75.49 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.45% and a net margin of 35.71%.The firm’s revenue was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.30 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 705,077,786 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $350,712,742,000 after purchasing an additional 13,691,572 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 299,196,519 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $148,823,341,000 after buying an additional 3,166,275 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 179,001,751 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $88,714,256,000 after acquiring an additional 3,532,054 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the second quarter valued at approximately $50,493,678,000. Finally, Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 564,387.1% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 90,549,369 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $45,040,162,000 after acquiring an additional 90,533,328 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% 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.