Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Stock: West Family Investments Inc. Increases Stake

West Family Investments Inc. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 26.2% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 24,135 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 5,016 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up 2.5% of West Family Investments Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 4th largest holding. West Family Investments Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $9,003,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Amundi boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 30.8% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 41,675,076 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $15,426,862,000 after acquiring an additional 9,814,598 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Microsoft by 10.5% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 29,323,744 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $10,852,884,000 after purchasing an additional 2,784,809 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 64.3% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 24,264,779 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $8,982,083,000 after purchasing an additional 9,493,778 shares in the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 21,906,086 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $8,108,976,000 after purchasing an additional 781,973 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank boosted its stake in Microsoft by 7.1% in the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 20,721,690 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $7,670,548,000 after purchasing an additional 1,371,040 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MSFT. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $650.00 price objective (up from $610.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, October 29th. William Blair assumed coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, October 5th. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, September 28th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-five have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $609.54.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 86,525 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $501.46, for a total value of $43,388,826.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 486,763 shares in the company, valued at $244,092,173.98. The trade was a 15.09% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $487.89, for a total transaction of $4,878,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 100,447 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,007,086.83. This trade represents a 9.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 145,504 shares of company stock valued at $73,016,924 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Key Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Azure and AI demand remain the key bullish catalysts. Recent coverage highlights Azure revenue growth of 48%, above Microsoft’s 44%–45% forecast, with demand reportedly exceeding available capacity. Strong cloud growth, expanding Copilot adoption, and a reported $677 billion contract backlog support the view that Microsoft can monetize its AI investments. Microsoft Delivers Strong Azure Growth as AI Demand Exceeds Supply
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and long-term investors continue to favor Microsoft’s scale and financial quality. Commentary points to Microsoft’s high-margin Azure platform, OpenAI partnership, prudent infrastructure expansion, and durable competitive position. Bill Ackman and other investors continue to view MSFT as a long-term compounder, while Microsoft’s latest quarterly results exceeded expectations with revenue up 18.8% year over year to $92.28 billion and EPS of $4.89. Microsoft’s Prudent Approach to the AI Infrastructure Buildout
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft is expanding enterprise AI relationships. Estée Lauder selected Microsoft’s cloud, data, and AI tools to unify data and support personalized customer experiences. The deal reinforces Azure’s enterprise relevance, although its financial contribution to Microsoft was not disclosed. Estée Lauder Partners With Microsoft on AI and Data Tools
• Negative Sentiment: AI financing and cash-flow concerns are weighing on mega-cap technology stocks. Microsoft’s roughly $25 billion bond offering and heavy data-center spending have prompted debate about leverage and returns on AI infrastructure. Recent coverage notes that free cash flow fell to about $18.6 billion as capital expenditures increased, making investors more sensitive to execution and funding risks. AI Bond Funding Might Change the Case for Investing in Microsoft
• Negative Sentiment: Market-wide technology weakness amplified the pressure. The Nasdaq declined as investors reassessed expensive AI-linked stocks, while Oracle’s $10 billion debt sale revived concerns that aggressive AI buildouts may require substantial borrowing. Microsoft’s strong balance sheet and low debt-to-equity ratio distinguish it from weaker peers, but the sector-wide risk-off move still affected MSFT. Oracle Declines as AI Debt Worries Return

Microsoft Stock Down 2.8%

Shares of MSFT opened at $507.12 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 1.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.77 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 1.10. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $349.20 and a 1 year high of $551.15. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $513.39 and its 200-day simple moving average is $438.62.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 28th. The software giant reported $4.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.72 by $0.17. Microsoft had a net margin of 41.17% and a return on equity of 32.31%. The firm had revenue of $92.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $90.62 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $4.13 earnings per share. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 19th will be paid a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 19th. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 20.46%.

Microsoft Company Profile

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a global technology company that develops software, cloud services, devices and digital platforms. Its products and services are used by consumers, businesses, governments and educational institutions worldwide.

The company’s principal offerings include the Windows operating system; Microsoft 365 productivity applications such as Word, Excel, Teams and Outlook; Azure cloud computing and infrastructure services; Dynamics business applications; and enterprise security solutions.