Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC Decreases Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC trimmed its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 115,897 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,646 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up 2.5% of Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 21st biggest holding. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $43,582,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth $45,000. PayPay Securities Corp raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 23.7% in the fourth quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 188 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $71,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares during the last quarter. Authentikos Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the third quarter worth $87,000. Cordant Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 647.8% in the fourth quarter. Cordant Inc. now owns 344 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $129,000 after acquiring an additional 298 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Family CFO Inc raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 13.6% in the third quarter. Family CFO Inc now owns 359 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $113,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSFT has been the subject of several analyst reports. Evercore ISI upped their target price on Microsoft from $475.00 to $485.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Macquarie upped their target price on Microsoft from $460.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on Microsoft from $465.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, March 25th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $454.70.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $420.21 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $309.45 and a 52-week high of $430.82. 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 capitalization of $3.12 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.38, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.89. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $415.05 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $396.29.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a return on equity of 37.54% and a net margin of 36.43%. The firm had revenue of $61.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.86 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.45 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 11.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.97%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total value of $8,868,941.80. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total value of $1,950,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,770,926.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Microsoft 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.