Landmark Wealth Management LLC Makes New $531,000 Investment in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Landmark Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 1,235 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $531,000.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc raised its stake in Microsoft by 169.2% during the 2nd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 70 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the period. Quarry LP purchased a new position in Microsoft in the second quarter worth $45,000. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the second quarter worth about $75,000. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 10.1% in the 3rd quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 338 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $145,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the period. Finally, Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 241.4% during the 2nd quarter. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC now owns 379 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $169,000 after buying an additional 268 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, October 28th. StockNews.com upgraded Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. TD Cowen lowered their target price on Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Microsoft from $470.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Loop Capital raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $511.62.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $427.85 on Tuesday. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $369.01 and a 12-month high of $468.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.18 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.90. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $428.64 and a 200-day moving average price of $427.95.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.57 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.99 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.78%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.39%.

Microsoft announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Monday, September 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the software giant to buy up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $417.00, for a total transaction of $10,425,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $48,911,598. This represents a 17.57 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total value of $1,118,525.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 49,352 shares in the company, valued at $22,080,578.32. The trade was a 4.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.