Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Newly Purchased by Jefferies Financial Group Inc.

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 125,660 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $46,868,000.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $27,338,370,000. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $18,306,443,000. Jupiter Topco LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $6,928,664,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought a new position in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $5,653,812,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company bought a new position in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $4,000,706,000. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, 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 transaction of $2,388,068.80. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 42,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,188,276.96. This represents a 10.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were 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. 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 a total of 150,314 shares of company stock worth $75,404,992 in the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT opened at $532.95 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.96 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.10. 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 50 day moving average of $507.45 and a 200 day moving average of $444.58. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $349.20 and a twelve month high of $553.72.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. The company had revenue of $90.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 40.31% and a return on equity of 31.98%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.65 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MSFT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, September 28th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, October 12th. TD Cowen increased their target price on Microsoft from $540.00 to $625.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 15th. Mizuho raised their price target on Microsoft from $510.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 15th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on Microsoft from $512.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 13th. Forty-three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $592.15.

Microsoft 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.