15,148 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Purchased by WNY Asset Management LLC

WNY Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 15,148 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $5,651,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 1.7% during the second quarter. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,473 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $549,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the period. Friedenthal Financial boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 6.2% in the first quarter. Friedenthal Financial now owns 431 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $160,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. Sequent Planning LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% in the first quarter. Sequent Planning LLC now owns 3,733 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,382,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. Lee Johnson Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 3.8% during the second quarter. Lee Johnson Capital Management LLC now owns 687 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $256,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Riverpoint Wealth Management Holdings LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% during the first quarter. Riverpoint Wealth Management Holdings LLC now owns 5,543 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,052,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $487.89, for a total value of $4,878,900.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 100,447 shares in the company, valued at $49,007,086.83. The trade was a 9.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,810 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $496.48, for a total value of $2,388,068.80. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 42,677 shares in the company, valued at $21,188,276.96. This represents a 10.13% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders sold 150,314 shares of company stock valued at $75,404,992. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.2%

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $532.95 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.96 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.10. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $349.20 and a 52-week high of $553.72. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $507.45 and a 200 day moving average price of $444.58. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. Microsoft had a net margin of 40.31% and a return on equity of 31.98%. The firm had revenue of $90.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $87.62 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.65 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.65 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.98 per share. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 19th. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.27%.

Key Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Expectations are building for another earnings beat, with demand for Azure cloud infrastructure, Microsoft 365 and Copilot supporting revenue and earnings growth. The key catalyst will be Microsoft’s October 28 report, where investors will look for accelerating Azure growth and evidence that AI investments are translating into monetization. Microsoft Earnings Preview
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft remains viewed favorably as a relatively cash-generative way to participate in the AI-cloud buildout. While Oracle’s cloud growth is faster, Microsoft’s stronger free cash flow, lower leverage and broad enterprise installed base may provide greater financial resilience as AI capital expenditures rise. Oracle Versus Microsoft
• Positive Sentiment: A new Boeing fleet-intelligence platform, Dataliner, is being built on Microsoft Azure AI Foundry. The partnership could add a recurring enterprise workload for Azure and demonstrate Microsoft’s ability to embed AI in industry-specific applications. Boeing and Microsoft Dataliner
• Positive Sentiment: Tavant’s Microsoft Fabric accelerator is now available through Microsoft Marketplace, potentially making it easier for businesses to deploy Fabric-based analytics and AI solutions across Azure. Tavant Fabric Accelerator
• Neutral Sentiment: GitHub Copilot is reportedly a major customer of Anthropic, highlighting demand for Microsoft’s AI developer tools but also exposing reliance on outside model providers and potential supplier concentration risk. Anthropic Revenue Concentration
• Negative Sentiment: Microsoft’s withdrawal as anchor tenant from a U.K. AI data-center project because of power-supply delays underscores a growing constraint: electricity and grid access may slow Azure’s AI capacity expansion and increase infrastructure costs. Microsoft Withdraws From UK AI Data Center Project
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that elevated prices for components could make Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox, Project Helix, less competitive or pressure demand. The gaming business is also undergoing restructuring, adding uncertainty beyond Azure and productivity software. Project Helix Pricing Concerns

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on MSFT shares. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 1st. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $640.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $700.00 to $725.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 1st. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $525.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 15th. Forty-three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $592.15.

About Microsoft

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.