Newport Capital Group LLC Sells 61 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Newport Capital Group LLC lessened its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 3,841 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 61 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for about 1.0% of Newport Capital Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 21st largest position. Newport Capital Group LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $987,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Microsoft by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 621,598,157 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $191,644,927,000 after purchasing an additional 5,648,095 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Microsoft by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 39,863,273 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $12,290,246,000 after purchasing an additional 766,487 shares during the last quarter. Swiss National Bank raised its position in Microsoft by 13.8% in the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 30,893,155 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,524,669,000 after purchasing an additional 3,757,500 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 3.8% in the 1st quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 27,871,939 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $8,593,198,000 after purchasing an additional 1,027,207 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 13.2% in the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 23,092,331 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $7,119,597,000 after buying an additional 2,696,424 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 69.29% of the company’s stock.

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Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $266.25, for a total transaction of $1,331,250.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 109,837 shares in the company, valued at $29,244,101.25. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.05% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on MSFT shares. Citigroup lowered their target price on Microsoft from $300.00 to $282.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 19th. Cowen lowered their target price on Microsoft from $310.00 to $285.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 26th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Microsoft from $275.00 to $270.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 26th. StockNews.com started coverage on Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, October 12th. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Finally, Guggenheim started coverage on Microsoft in a research note on Friday, August 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $292.00 target price for the company. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $300.95.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $221.39 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $1.65 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.92. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $242.19 and its 200-day moving average is $259.19. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $213.43 and a one year high of $349.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.79.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 25th. The software giant reported $2.35 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.30 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $50.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.70 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 42.10% and a net margin of 34.37%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.27 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 9.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.68 per share. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 16th. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.72%.

Microsoft Company Profile

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Microsoft Corporation develops, licenses, and supports software, services, devices, and solutions worldwide. The company operates in three segments: Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft Viva, and Skype for Business; Skype, Outlook.com, OneDrive, and LinkedIn; and Dynamics 365, a set of cloud-based and on-premises business solutions for organizations and enterprise divisions.