Charter Oak Capital Management LLC reduced its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 1.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 7,349 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 137 shares during the period. Charter Oak Capital Management LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,762,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Monumental Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 71.4% during the third quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 132 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Financial Solutions LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, Macroview Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth about $61,000. 69.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $295.00 in a research note on Monday, March 20th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $300.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, March 24th. Barclays cut their price target on Microsoft from $296.00 to $280.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 10th. Wolfe Research dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 25th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $290.00 to $275.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $290.92.

Microsoft Stock Up 2.6 %

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $291.60 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $213.43 and a 1 year high of $303.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 1.93 and a quick ratio of 1.89. The stock has a market cap of $2.17 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.40, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.93. The firm's 50-day moving average is $265.20 and its two-hundred day moving average is $248.27.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $52.75 billion for 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 quarterly revenue was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.48 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 9.31 earnings per share 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 given a $0.68 dividend. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.93%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft's payout ratio is 30.22%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total value of $272,320.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares in the company, valued at $31,687,699.84. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total transaction of $272,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares of the company's stock, valued at $31,687,699.84. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total transaction 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. Insiders sold 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111 in the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Microsoft Profile

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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.

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