Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock Position Lifted by Goldstone Financial Group LLC

Goldstone Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 5.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,788 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 427 shares during the period. Goldstone Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,282,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% during the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $427,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. increased its position in Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,658,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the period. O Neil Global Advisors Inc. increased its position in Microsoft by 292.9% in the 2nd quarter. O Neil Global Advisors Inc. now owns 5,500 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,458,000 after buying an additional 4,100 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 4.1% during the second quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 178,114 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $79,608,000 after buying an additional 7,026 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 29.1% in the second quarter. Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC now owns 133,914 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $59,852,000 after acquiring an additional 30,198 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $392.53 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.92 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.60, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.90. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $421.47 and its 200 day simple moving average is $422.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.34. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $385.58 and a one year high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 33.36%. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.93 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.73%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $430.87, for a total transaction of $1,077,175.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 53,852 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,203,211.24. This trade represents a 4.44 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 7,000 shares of company stock worth $3,070,340. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the subject of a number of research reports. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $520.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, January 27th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $525.00 to $510.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $510.96.

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.