Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC Increases Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,882 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 131 shares during the period. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,836,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sicart Associates LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Sicart Associates LLC now owns 926 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $348,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC now owns 3,866 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,434,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. O Connor Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. O Connor Financial Group LLC now owns 2,191 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $692,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Navis Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Navis Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,507 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $476,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kaizen Financial Strategies grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Kaizen Financial Strategies now owns 7,807 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,936,000 after buying an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $465.00 price objective (up previously from $455.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $485.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $480.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Microsoft from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $452.61.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.8 %

Microsoft stock opened at $406.32 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $414.48 and its two-hundred day moving average is $388.51. The stock has a market cap of $3.02 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.18, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.89. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $295.25 and a 1-year high of $430.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 1.20.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.86 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.87% and a net margin of 36.43%. The firm’s revenue was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.45 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 11.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.97%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $406.12, for a total value of $1,341,414.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 570,826 shares in the company, valued at $231,823,855.12. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Microsoft news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total transaction of $1,950,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,770,926.10. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $406.12, for a total value of $1,341,414.36. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 570,826 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $231,823,855.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456 in the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Microsoft

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.