Crestone Asset Management LLC Has $983,000 Stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Crestone Asset Management LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 24.9% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,220 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,398 shares during the period. Crestone Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $983,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Monumental Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the first quarter worth approximately $28,000. Newfound Research LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 25.4% in the second quarter. Newfound Research LLC now owns 296 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $76,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Darrow Company Inc. bought a new stake in Microsoft in the second quarter valued at approximately $82,000. Morgan Dempsey Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the third quarter worth $82,000. Finally, Avondale Wealth Management increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 58.6% during the third quarter. Avondale Wealth Management now owns 406 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $95,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. 69.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT stock opened at $242.04 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.79, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $213.43 and a 12 month high of $315.95. The firm has a market cap of $1.80 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.94. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $241.72 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $249.53.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.30 by $0.02. Microsoft had a net margin of 34.37% and a return on equity of 42.10%. The firm had revenue of $52.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $53.17 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.48 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 9.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 15th will be paid a $0.68 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 15th. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.12%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 29.31%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 24,144 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $254.27, for a total value of $6,139,094.88. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 150,047 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,152,450.69. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on MSFT. Rosenblatt Securities lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $300.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. set a $275.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Microsoft from $300.00 to $290.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 26th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $270.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, January 5th. Finally, Cowen reduced their target price on shares of Microsoft from $285.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $287.79.

Microsoft Profile

(Get Rating)

Microsoft Corporation develops, licenses, and supports software, services, devices, and solutions worldwide. The company operates in three segments: Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft Viva, and Skype for Business; Skype, Outlook.com, OneDrive, and LinkedIn; and Dynamics 365, a set of cloud-based and on-premises business solutions for organizations and enterprise divisions.