Cornerstone Planning Group LLC Increases Position in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Cornerstone Planning Group LLC increased its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 73.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,540 shares of the software giant's stock after purchasing an additional 1,917 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 0.4% of Cornerstone Planning Group LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest position. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,700,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in MSFT. Newton One Investments LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 66.7% during the 1st quarter. Newton One Investments LLC now owns 75 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Ball & Co Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. LSV Asset Management purchased a new position in Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $44,000. IFS Advisors LLC increased its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $62,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on MSFT shares. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $580.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $540.00 to $637.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $530.00 to $582.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Microsoft from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, August 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $612.54.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT opened at $504.26 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.75 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.97, a P/E/G ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 1.35. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $555.45. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $506.58 and its 200 day simple moving average is $445.18.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.35 by $0.30. The firm had revenue of $76.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $73.79 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.15% and a return on equity of 32.44%. Microsoft's revenue was up 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.95 earnings per share. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect 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. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft's payout ratio is 24.34%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on 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. The trade was a 11.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold 8,850 shares of company stock worth $4,406,512 over the last 90 days. 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.

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