Brookstone Capital Management Acquires 14,093 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Brookstone Capital Management increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 9.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 161,355 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 14,093 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 1.2% of Brookstone Capital Management’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest holding. Brookstone Capital Management’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $67,885,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,920,047,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $9,625,201,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 664,908,939 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $250,032,357,000 after buying an additional 15,701,937 shares during the period. TCI Fund Management Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $4,000,376,000. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 215,874,152 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $68,162,263,000 after buying an additional 5,762,902 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 322 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $416.60, for a total transaction of $134,145.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 47,255 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,686,433. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 322 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $416.60, for a total value of $134,145.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 47,255 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,686,433. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $425.68, for a total value of $10,642,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 104,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,674,690.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 25,566 shares of company stock valued at $10,877,535. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the topic of several analyst reports. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $480.00 price target (up from $450.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $465.00 price target (up from $455.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, May 24th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $480.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $455.00 to $465.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $467.12.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $459.28 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The stock has a market cap of $3.41 trillion, a P/E ratio of 39.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.89. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $425.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $410.79. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $309.45 and a twelve month high of $459.59.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.86 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 37.54% and a net margin of 36.43%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.45 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 11.77 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.97%.

About Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation develops and supports software, services, devices and solutions worldwide. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers office, exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft viva, and Microsoft 365 copilot; and office consumer services, such as Microsoft 365 consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other office services.