Wasatch Advisors LP Invests $5.61 Million in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Wasatch Advisors LP bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 15,027 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $5,605,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. WFA Asset Management Corp raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% during the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $427,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. increased its position in Microsoft by 0.3% during the second quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,658,000 after buying an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 410.4% during the third quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,144,000 after buying an additional 2,138 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 2,374 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,000,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 23,097 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,735,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on MSFT shares. HSBC dropped their price objective on Microsoft from $593.00 to $571.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. Scotiabank reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $510.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. New Street Research decreased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $675.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Forty-two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $560.27.

Microsoft News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft announced a long-term partnership with Saudi Arabia’s HUMAIN to bring Arabic-language ALLAM AI models to Microsoft Foundry and Microsoft 365 Copilot. The agreement strengthens Microsoft’s enterprise-AI reach in the Middle East and could support additional Azure and Copilot adoption. Microsoft Expands Middle East AI Footprint Through Long-Term HUMAIN Deal
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft and ChronoScale reportedly plan a 50-megawatt AI-compute deployment using NVIDIA GB300 systems. The project signals continued demand for Microsoft’s cloud and AI infrastructure, although it also implies substantial near-term capital spending. ChronoScale and Microsoft Plan 50 MW AI Compute Deployment
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s Superintelligence team is pursuing internally developed frontier models and greater AI self-sufficiency. Building proprietary models could reduce dependence on outside providers and improve long-term economics if execution is successful. Microsoft AI Self-Sufficiency Strategy
• Positive Sentiment: Investor Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square reportedly made Microsoft its largest AI-related holding after reducing Alphabet exposure, adding an influential vote of confidence in Microsoft’s cloud, AI and backlog outlook. Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Microsoft Investment

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,810 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $496.48, for a total transaction of $2,388,068.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 42,677 shares in the company, valued at $21,188,276.96. The trade was a 10.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.99, for a total transaction of $7,145,345.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 110,477 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,928,792.23. The trade was a 12.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 37,310 shares of company stock worth $17,256,219. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.8%

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $505.06 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.75 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $428.19 and a 200-day moving average of $411.73. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $349.20 and a 52-week high of $553.72.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.50. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.98% and a net margin of 40.31%.The business had revenue of $90.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $87.62 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.65 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.59 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 20th will be issued a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.27%.

Microsoft Profile

Microsoft Corporation is a global technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft develops, licenses and supports a broad range of software products, services and devices for consumers, enterprises and governments worldwide. Its operations span personal computing, productivity software, cloud infrastructure, enterprise applications, developer tools and gaming.

Microsoft’s product portfolio includes the Windows operating system and the Microsoft 365 suite of productivity and collaboration tools (Office apps, Outlook, Teams).