Sigma Investment Counsellors Inc. has increased its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 8.2% in the fourth quarter, which made headlines lately. According to its most recent SEC filing, Sigma Investment Counsellors Inc. bought an additional 4,470 shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter, bringing its total Microsoft stock holdings to 58,980. In 2021, Microsoft is expected to reap benefits from rising interest in its cloud services and the introduction of new hardware, according to analysts.
Microsoft’s net margin of 33.05% and sales of $52.75 billion for Q4 have been well received by investors, putting the company on track to report a per-share profit of roughly $9 for fiscal year 2021. Despite this progress and hope for the future, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has recently sold over 4,700 shares of Microsoft stock at an average price of around $250 per share, prompting supporters to either doubt or endorse their screening methods.
Chief Marketing Officer Christopher C. Capossela sold 2,720 shares of the company’s stock on February 13 at an average price of $272.32, bringing in a total of $272,320. Based on today’s stock price, Nadella’s planned sales equal to around $1 million. His plan was originally submitted in August 2020. Nadella, who had held a higher number of shares — over 900,000 — before assuming his present position at Microsoft, now controls roughly 800,000.
Sigma Investment Counsellors Inc. has recently made a sizeable purchase of Microsoft stock, making the software giant its 22nd largest position (representing roughly 1.2% of the firm’s total portfolio) despite insider selling activity in recent weeks. Sigma Investment Counsellors Inc.’s decision is another evidence of MSFT’s ascendance and growing importance in the investment advisory industry. The IT giant has been in the news recently due to its booming earnings and rising impact across cloud-based solutions with initiatives like Azure and other services like Windows. Indeed, specialists in the field anticipate this expansionary tendency to persist through the next months.
Large Investors Show Interest in Microsoft Despite CEO and Insider Sales
Microsoft’s holdings have fluctuated recently among significant investors. Monumental Financial Group Inc. bought Microsoft shares in the first quarter and Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC in the fourth quarter.
Hanseatic Management Services Inc. bought 55 more Microsoft shares in the third quarter, increasing its holdings by 71.4% to 132 worth $31,000.
Retirement Financial Solutions LLC added a $40,000 Microsoft investment in the fourth quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC also invested $61,000 in Microsoft over the same period.
Institutional investors and hedge funds hold 69.15%.
Microsoft began Tuesday at $281.77 and has a 50-day simple moving average of $271.11 and a 200-day of $251.86. The corporation has a $2.10 trillion market value, 31.31 P/E ratio, 2.53 P/E/G ratio, and 0.93 beta.
CEO Satya Nadella sold roughly 5,000 Microsoft shares for $248.88 per share for almost $1 million.
CMO Christopher C. Capossela liquidated firm assets for around $270,000.They were two of several recent firm transactions where executives sold shares valued more than $1.7 million USD.
Microsoft will pay $0.68 per share in dividends on June 6th, yielding 0.97% with a 30.22% annual dividend payout ratio.
Bank of America raised its price objective from $300 to $320 and rated Microsoft a “buy.” BMO Capital Markets raised their share target price from $310 to $325 and gave it a “market perform” rating. The firm was rated hold by six analysts and sell by one. According to Bloomberg, twenty-eight analysts rated it “Moderate Buy” with an average target price of $299.44.
Microsoft’s technology sector performance will be intriguing to watch as significant investors increase or reduce their investments.