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Bank of Stockton decreased its holdings in shares of $Microsoft(MSFT)$ by 2.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 20,560 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 568 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up about 1.7% of Bank of Stockton's investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. Bank of Stockton's holdings in Microsoft were worth $4,931,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Monumental Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Microsoft during the first quarter worth approximately $28,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. increased its position in Microsoft by 71.4% during the third quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 132 shares of the software giant's stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth approximately $61,000. Morgan Dempsey Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft during the third quarter worth approximately $82,000. Finally, Avondale Wealth Management increased its position in Microsoft by 58.6% during the third quarter. Avondale Wealth Management now owns 406 shares of the software giant's stock worth $95,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.15% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on MSFT shares. Cowen lowered their price target on Microsoft from $285.00 to $280.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 19th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, March 17th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $280.00 to $295.00 in a report on Monday, March 20th. Barclays reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $296.00 to $280.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 10th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $290.00 to $275.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $288.73.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.38, for a total value of $269,380.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 117,362 shares in the company, valued at $31,614,975.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.38, for a total value of $269,380.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 117,362 shares in the company, valued at $31,614,975.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total value of $1,186,410.96. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares of the company's stock, valued at $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of MSFT opened at $284.05 . The company has a fifty day moving average of $259.82 and a 200-day moving average of $246.67. The company has a market capitalization of $2.11 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a current ratio of 1.93. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $213.43 and a 52-week high of $315.95.

Microsoft last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $52.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $53.17 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.05% and a return on equity of 39.87%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.48 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.68 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.96%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 30.22%.

Microsoft Company Profile

Microsoft Corp. engages in the development and support of software, services, devices, and solutions. It operates through the following business segments: Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. The Productivity and Business Processes segment consists of Office Commercial (Office 365 subscriptions, the Office 365 portion of Microsoft 365 Commercial subscriptions, and Office licensed on-premises), Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, and Skype for Business, Office Consumer, including Microsoft 365 Consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other Office services, LinkedIn, including Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions, Premium Subscriptions, Sales Solutions, and Learning Solutions, Dynamics business solutions, including Dynamics 365, comprising a set of intelligent, cloud-based applications across ERP, CRM, Customer Insights, Power Apps, and Power Automate, and on-premises ERP and CRM applications.

Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

source：marketbeat.