Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) is Lodestone Wealth Management LLC’s 4th Largest Position

Lodestone Wealth Management LLC lowered its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,949 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 358 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up 2.9% of Lodestone Wealth Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest holding. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $6,002,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. WFA Asset Management Corp boosted its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 216 shares during the period. Retirement Planning Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 15.6% in the second quarter. Retirement Planning Group LLC now owns 18,328 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $8,192,000 after purchasing an additional 2,475 shares in the last quarter. Spectrum Asset Management Inc. NB CA boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 3.9% in the second quarter. Spectrum Asset Management Inc. NB CA now owns 12,771 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,708,000 after buying an additional 480 shares during the period. Seneca House Advisors grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.5% during the second quarter. Seneca House Advisors now owns 29,125 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $13,017,000 after buying an additional 724 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mirador Capital Partners LP raised its position in Microsoft by 1.8% during the second quarter. Mirador Capital Partners LP now owns 32,309 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $14,441,000 after buying an additional 556 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have weighed in on MSFT shares. Mizuho lifted their target price on Microsoft from $480.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. StockNews.com cut shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $509.90.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total value of $1,118,525.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 49,352 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,080,578.32. The trade was a 4.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total transaction of $3,050,352.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. This represents a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $423.35 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $428.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $428.38. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $366.50 and a 1 year high of $468.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.15 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.90.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The firm had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.57 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.99 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.39%.

Microsoft declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Monday, September 16th that permits the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the software giant to purchase up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Microsoft 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.