Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC Acquires 781 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 65,630 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 781 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for approximately 2.3% of Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 7th largest holding. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $28,241,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. WFA Asset Management Corp grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% during the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $427,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Norman Fields Gottscho Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 16.2% in the 2nd quarter. Norman Fields Gottscho Capital Management LLC now owns 4,059 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,893,000 after buying an additional 565 shares during the last quarter. ACT Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter. ACT Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,622 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,619,000 after buying an additional 164 shares during the period. Warther Private Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 4.9% during the second quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 35,272 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $15,765,000 after acquiring an additional 1,634 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bourgeon Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% during the second quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC now owns 52,516 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $23,472,000 after acquiring an additional 628 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total value of $414,720.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 57,511 shares in the company, valued at $23,850,961.92. This trade represents a 1.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $417.00, for a total value of $10,425,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,294 shares in the company, valued at approximately $48,911,598. This represents a 17.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on MSFT. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. TD Cowen lowered their price target on shares of Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $509.90.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $430.53 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $3.20 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.52, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $366.50 and a 12 month high of $468.35. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $428.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $428.85.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.99 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback 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 reacquire up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.77%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.39%.

Microsoft Company Profile

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.