Lodestone Wealth Management LLC Buys 170 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Lodestone Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 14,089 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 170 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 2.8% of Lodestone Wealth Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $5,289,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. WFA Asset Management Corp boosted 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 in the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,658,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 410.4% during the 3rd quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,144,000 after acquiring an additional 2,138 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 2,374 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,000,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tallon Kerry Patrick purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth about $1,375,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.4%

MSFT opened at $520.17 on Monday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $502.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $441.19. Microsoft Corporation has a 52 week low of $344.79 and a 52 week high of $555.45. The stock has a market cap of $3.87 trillion, a PE ratio of 38.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a quick ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.35 by $0.30. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.44% and a net margin of 36.15%. The firm had revenue of $76.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $73.79 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.95 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.34%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MSFT. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Microsoft from $550.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on Microsoft from $540.00 to $637.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Wall Street Zen raised Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, August 2nd. Finally, Mizuho raised their target price on Microsoft from $540.00 to $625.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $609.86.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $453.77, for a total value of $9,756,055.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 134,888 shares in the company, valued at approximately $61,208,127.76. This represents a 13.75% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $527.32, for a total transaction of $2,557,502.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 39,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,624,012.52. This trade represents a 11.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 30,350 shares of company stock worth $14,162,567 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.