Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC Has $36.25 Million Stock Holdings in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.8% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 69,984 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,938 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up approximately 2.0% of Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $36,248,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. AlphaQuest LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 5.9% during the second quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 342 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $170,000 after purchasing an additional 19 shares during the last quarter. BLVD Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.6% during the third quarter. BLVD Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,169 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,641,000 after purchasing an additional 19 shares during the period. Foundation Wealth Management LLC PA lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Foundation Wealth Management LLC PA now owns 1,276 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $635,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Magnolia Capital Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Magnolia Capital Management Ltd. now owns 6,509 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,371,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Finally, ARK & TLK Investments LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. ARK & TLK Investments LLC now owns 1,935 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,002,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Trending Headlines about Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and AI strategists argue Microsoft is a core AI infrastructure winner — a driver for investor interest given Azure, identity/auth layers and high switching costs that position MSFT to benefit from AI-driven enterprise spending. AI Is Separating Software Winners From Losers
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s new collaboration with Starlink signals expanded connectivity and potential Azure edge use cases (rural/remote customers), supporting cloud revenue optionality and positive sentiment around partnership-driven growth. Microsoft Is Teaming up With Starlink
• Positive Sentiment: An insider purchase (director John Stanton) added a small but visible vote of confidence after the post-earnings sell-off, which can support short-term sentiment and stabilize shares. Director Stanton John Just Bought $2 Million of Microsoft Stock
• Neutral Sentiment: The White House’s planned power-cost pledge with big cloud/data-center firms (including Microsoft) reduces one operational risk for hyperscalers and could be a modest long-term positive for data-center economics, though timing/implementation remain uncertain. White House to host Big Tech pledge
• Neutral Sentiment: CEO Satya Nadella’s public comments pushing back on low-quality “AI slop” reflect management trying to shape the narrative around responsible, enterprise-grade AI — a reputational plus but contributed to short-term volatility as markets parsed the tone. Satya Nadella Rails Against AI Slop
• Negative Sentiment: Japan’s Fair Trade Commission raided Microsoft Japan offices in a probe into possible restrictions around Azure customers using rival cloud services — this antitrust scrutiny is an immediate regulatory overhang that can hurt sentiment and add legal/operational uncertainty. Microsoft Japan raided over suspected violation of anti-monopoly law
• Negative Sentiment: Market debate continues over Azure growth pacing vs. very large AI infrastructure capex (management flagged elevated AI-related investment), which knocked the stock after Q2 despite beats — investors are weighing near-term margin/cash impact against longer-term AI revenue upside. Microsoft Stock Opinions on Fiscal Q2 Earnings
• Negative Sentiment: Broader sector risks — heightened talk of AI regulation and a Magnificent Seven rotation — keep pressure on valuations and can amplify moves in MSFT even when fundamentals are solid; this contributes to volatility until clarity on regulation and data-center costs emerges. Will Regulating AI Cripple AI Stocks?

Microsoft Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $401.72 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $445.43 and a 200-day simple moving average of $484.72. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $555.45. The firm has a market cap of $2.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a quick ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.86 by $0.28. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.34% and a net margin of 39.04%.The firm had revenue of $81.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $80.28 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.23 earnings per share. Microsoft’s revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 19th will be issued a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 19th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 22.76%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $640.00 to $520.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 26th. Robert W. Baird set a $540.00 price target on Microsoft and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. BNP Paribas Exane upped their price objective on Microsoft from $632.00 to $659.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Raymond James Financial dropped their target price on Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $575.00 to $550.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $591.95.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, Director John W. Stanton bought 5,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $397.35 per share, for a total transaction of $1,986,750.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 83,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,339,651.75. This represents a 6.34% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.52, for a total value of $6,266,880.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 129,349 shares in the company, valued at $63,577,620.48. This represents a 8.97% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Company Profile

Microsoft Corporation is a global technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft develops, licenses and supports a broad range of software products, services and devices for consumers, enterprises and governments worldwide. Its operations span personal computing, productivity software, cloud infrastructure, enterprise applications, developer tools and gaming.

Microsoft’s product portfolio includes the Windows operating system and the Microsoft 365 suite of productivity and collaboration tools (Office apps, Outlook, Teams).