Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. lowered its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 69.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,609 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 8,298 shares during the period. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc.'s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,553,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Net Worth Advisory Group bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the third quarter worth about $2,645,000. Oak Ridge Investments LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 263,534 shares of the software giant's stock worth $113,399,000 after buying an additional 18,544 shares during the last quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.6% during the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 1,975,200 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $882,816,000 after buying an additional 31,401 shares during the period. Jacobs & Co. CA raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.9% during the third quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA now owns 96,021 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $41,318,000 after acquiring an additional 880 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Focus Financial Network Inc. lifted its stake in Microsoft by 2.0% in the third quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 76,296 shares of the software giant's stock worth $32,830,000 after acquiring an additional 1,489 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total value of $3,050,352.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at $43,792,039.56. The trade was a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total value of $414,720.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 57,511 shares in the company, valued at $23,850,961.92. This trade represents a 1.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892 in the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the subject of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $525.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $550.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and set a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $512.93.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT traded down $0.53 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $428.50. The company had a trading volume of 25,848,817 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,069,188. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $429.54 and its 200-day moving average price is $425.92. The firm has a market cap of $3.19 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.35, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $385.58 and a 52 week high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. Microsoft's revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.99 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 12.92 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio is currently 27.39%.

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.