Goldstone Financial Group LLC Grows Stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Goldstone Financial Group LLC raised its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 18.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,194 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,406 shares during the quarter. Goldstone Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,451,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ball & Co Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at $38,000. LSV Asset Management purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at $44,000. IFS Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 50.0% during the 1st quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $57,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at $62,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.0%

Shares of MSFT opened at $505.62 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $474.88 and its 200-day moving average price is $427.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.76 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.07, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Microsoft Corporation has a 1-year low of $344.79 and a 1-year high of $508.30.

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

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 21st will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.66%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on MSFT shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $430.00 to $494.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $600.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Evercore ISI set a $515.00 target price on shares of Microsoft and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $538.04.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The shares were 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 directly owned 476,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $207,995,413.95. The trade was a 13.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 16,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $458.18, for a total transaction of $7,330,880.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 98,010 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $44,906,221.80. This trade represents a 14.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 135,743 shares of company stock worth $60,224,683 over the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.