Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC Boosts Stock Position in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 12.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 185,581 shares of the software giant's stock after acquiring an additional 20,813 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 3.4% of Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest holding. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $69,665,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% in the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant's stock worth $427,000 after buying an additional 216 shares during the period. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant's stock worth $5,658,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the period. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 410.4% in the 3rd quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant's stock worth $1,144,000 after buying an additional 2,138 shares during the period. Wealth Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 2,374 shares of the software giant's stock worth $1,000,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Finally, Tallon Kerry Patrick purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth $1,375,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the subject of several research reports. TD Securities upped their target price on Microsoft from $475.00 to $490.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Microsoft from $550.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on Microsoft from $540.00 to $637.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $650.00 price target (up from $600.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $612.54.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $527.32, for a total value of $2,557,502.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 39,111 shares in the company, valued at $20,624,012.52. This trade represents a 11.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders sold a total of 8,850 shares of company stock valued at $4,406,512 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $506.74 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.77 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.06. The business's 50 day moving average is $507.59 and its two-hundred day moving average is $446.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Microsoft Corporation has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.35 by $0.30. The company had revenue of $76.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $73.79 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.44% and a net margin of 36.15%.Microsoft's revenue for the quarter was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.95 earnings per share. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be given a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.34%.

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.

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