Bernard Wealth Management Corp. Purchases New Stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Bernard Wealth Management Corp. bought a new position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 21,576 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $9,094,000. Microsoft makes up about 4.2% of Bernard Wealth Management Corp.’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest position.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 684,071,705 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $288,336,224,000 after purchasing an additional 10,431,988 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 168,128,024 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $70,720,874,000 after buying an additional 3,103,212 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth approximately $44,343,058,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $35,316,535,000 after purchasing an additional 11,600,470 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 59,961,337 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $25,273,704,000 after purchasing an additional 5,370,546 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $540.00 to $605.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 11th. Mizuho raised their target price on Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. KeyCorp reaffirmed a “sector weight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Scotiabank raised their price target on Microsoft from $470.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, June 14th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $515.68.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.6%

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $477.40 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $483.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.55 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.89, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.03. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $437.84 and its 200 day moving average is $420.47.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.22 by $0.24. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 35.79%. The business had revenue of $70.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $68.54 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.94 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 25.66%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $463.00, for a total value of $1,389,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 43,930 shares in the company, valued at $20,339,590. This represents a 6.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $436.05, for a total value of $32,703,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 476,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $207,995,413.95. This trade represents a 13.59% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 135,743 shares of company stock worth $60,224,683. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.