First Heartland Consultants Inc. increased its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 1.5% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,493 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the quarter. First Heartland Consultants Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,851,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MSFT. UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 7.5% in the third quarter. UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. now owns 46,493,373 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $13,107,412,000 after buying an additional 3,258,613 shares during the period. Cedar Brook Financial Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 6.0% during the 4th quarter. Cedar Brook Financial Partners LLC now owns 16,414 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,520,000 after buying an additional 931 shares during the period. Edge Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Edge Wealth Management LLC now owns 92,948 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $31,260,000 after buying an additional 1,175 shares during the period. ACT Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. ACT Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,097 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,378,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the period. Finally, G&S Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 15.0% during the 4th quarter. G&S Capital LLC now owns 11,743 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,949,000 after buying an additional 1,535 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 69.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSFT has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada set a $380.00 target price on Microsoft in a report on Thursday, May 19th. Wolfe Research lifted their target price on Microsoft from $330.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 27th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Microsoft from $425.00 to $400.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 19th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Microsoft from $350.00 to $320.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. set a $320.00 price objective on Microsoft in a report on Thursday, June 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $349.52.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT opened at $256.72 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $1.92 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $260.59 and a 200-day moving average price of $285.93. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $241.51 and a 12-month high of $349.67.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 26th. The software giant reported $2.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.18 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $49.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $49.05 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 44.85% and a net margin of 37.63%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.95 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 9.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 18th will be paid a $0.62 dividend. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 17th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.89%.

Microsoft Profile

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Microsoft Corporation develops, licenses, and supports software, services, devices, and solutions worldwide. Its Productivity and Business Processes segment offers Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, and Skype for Business, as well as related Client Access Licenses (CAL); Skype, Outlook.com, OneDrive, and LinkedIn; and Dynamics 365, a set of cloud-based and on-premises business solutions for organizations and enterprise divisions.

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