Muhlenkamp & Co. Inc. Buys 32,776 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Muhlenkamp & Co. Inc. bought a new position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 32,776 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $12,226,000. Microsoft accounts for approximately 3.5% of Muhlenkamp & Co. Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest holding.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 4.0% in the second quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 229,490 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $85,604,000 after purchasing an additional 8,773 shares during the last quarter. D.B. Root & Company LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,652,000. Dearborn Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at $75,641,000. Markel Group Inc. raised its stake in Microsoft by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Markel Group Inc. now owns 537,630 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $199,014,000 after buying an additional 1,950 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. raised its stake in Microsoft by 8.4% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 6,921,677 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,562,197,000 after buying an additional 537,634 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 100,447 shares in the company, valued at $49,007,086.83. This represents a 9.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Amy Hood sold 7,305 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $545.42, for a total value of $3,984,293.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 555,396 shares in the company, valued at $302,924,086.32. This trade represents a 1.30% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 150,314 shares of company stock worth $75,404,992. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Yorkville Ives started coverage on Microsoft in a report on Monday, October 5th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $615.00 price target on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $660.00 to $662.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday. Evercore upgraded Microsoft from an “underperform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 5th. Stifel Nicolaus raised Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $530.00 to $575.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, September 28th. 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $592.15.

Microsoft News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s AI diagnostic system reportedly diagnosed complex medical cases more than twice as often as generalist physicians in a simulation published in Science. The result supports the company’s ambitions in healthcare and “medical superintelligence.” Microsoft AI medical diagnostic study
• Positive Sentiment: Reports highlighted strong underlying cloud momentum: Azure annual revenue has surpassed $100 billion, cloud-services growth reached 43%, and Microsoft’s commercial backlog rose to approximately $678 billion. These trends could support the investment case if the company demonstrates continued acceleration in its upcoming earnings report. Microsoft cloud demand and backlog
• Positive Sentiment: CEO Satya Nadella said Microsoft is reorganizing around AI agents, broader model choice and lower-cost computing. The strategy could expand Copilot and Azure adoption across business workflows. Microsoft AI agent strategy
• Positive Sentiment: A strategic collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim will pursue AI-backed clinical development and digital patient twins, providing another potential application for Microsoft’s cloud and AI platforms. Microsoft and Boehringer Ingelheim partnership
• Neutral Sentiment: Investors are focused on next week’s fiscal first-quarter earnings report. Analysts expect double-digit earnings growth, but the market increasingly wants evidence that Azure growth can keep pace with rivals and justify Microsoft’s substantial AI infrastructure investments. Microsoft earnings preview
• Negative Sentiment: Microsoft’s large AI capital expenditures remain a key valuation risk. While spending may create a long-term competitive moat, investors are concerned that data-center and infrastructure costs could pressure near-term returns, especially amid higher interest rates and market volatility. Microsoft AI spending and investment risk
• Negative Sentiment: Xbox announced pricing for cloud streaming of games users already own, prompting concerns about consumer reaction and pressure on Microsoft’s gaming business. Xbox cloud gaming pricing
• Negative Sentiment: Former CEO Bill Gates warned that AI could bring roughly two decades of disruption, reinforcing investor concerns about an AI investment bubble and the potential for expensive projects to produce uncertain returns. Bill Gates AI disruption comments

Microsoft Trading Down 2.2%

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $521.08 on Friday. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $349.20 and a 1 year high of $553.72. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $507.93 and a 200-day moving average price of $445.62. 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 company has a market cap of $3.87 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.01, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.10.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $90.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $87.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.65 EPS. Microsoft’s revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.98 per share. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 19th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 20.27%.

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.