Magellan Asset Management Ltd Makes New Investment in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Magellan Asset Management Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 455,679 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $169,977,000. Microsoft accounts for about 3.8% of Magellan Asset Management Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 9th biggest holding.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MSFT. Auto Owners Insurance Co raised its position in Microsoft by 56,160.8% in the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 60,116,384 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $29,073,486,000 after purchasing an additional 60,009,531 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 234.5% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 17,822,280 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $8,619,211,000 after buying an additional 12,493,786 shares during the period. Amundi raised its holdings 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 buying an additional 9,814,598 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 64.3% during 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 acquiring an additional 9,493,778 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Diamant Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 38,442.1% during the 1st quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. now owns 6,810,388 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,521,001,000 after acquiring an additional 6,792,718 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on MSFT shares. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $680.00 to $690.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Wolfe Research lowered Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 23rd. KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday. Forty-two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $589.71.

Microsoft Stock Down 1.9%

NASDAQ:MSFT traded down $10.39 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $529.05. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 24,810,924 shares, compared to its average volume of 23,057,592. 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 Corporation has a 1 year low of $349.20 and a 1 year high of $553.72. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $505.53 and a 200-day moving average of $440.59. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.93 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.10.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results 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 business had revenue of $90.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $87.62 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.65 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 19th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 20.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In related news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 100,447 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $49,007,086.83. The trade was a 9.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Amy Hood sold 41,674 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $498.27, for a total value of $20,764,903.98. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 533,624 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $265,888,830.48. This represents a 7.24% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 150,314 shares of company stock valued at $75,404,992 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

More Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts expect Microsoft to remain the only major hyperscaler with positive free cash flow over the next year despite heavy AI investment. This reinforces confidence that the company can fund data-center expansion without substantial external financing. Microsoft Free Cash Flow Expected to Remain Positive
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft signed a 20-year agreement with NiSource for approximately 1,100 megawatts of power for an Indiana data-center campus beginning in 2028. Securing electricity supports future Azure capacity as grid constraints become a bottleneck for AI expansion. Microsoft Signs Power Deal With NiSource
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s custom Maia AI chips and reports that a new model achieved comparable or better performance than OpenAI’s system using a fraction of the computing power could eventually reduce reliance on expensive third-party GPUs and improve AI economics. Microsoft Wants to Make AI Cheaper
• Neutral Sentiment: Investors are focused on Azure growth, Copilot adoption, AI monetization and capital expenditures ahead of earnings. Strong demand could support the shares, but the market wants evidence that revenue growth is translating into sustainable margins.
• Negative Sentiment: The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority is investigating Microsoft’s grip on business software and says Microsoft and Amazon Web Services may need to do more to address cloud-service barriers. Potential remedies could increase compliance costs or weaken customer-lock-in advantages. UK Regulator Targets Microsoft’s Business Software Grip
• Negative Sentiment: Questions remain over whether custom chips will deliver meaningful savings: AI infrastructure, power and data-center commitments are rising rapidly, while Microsoft is reportedly seeking substantial cost reductions in Azure. That creates concern about near-term free-cash-flow and margin pressure.

Microsoft Profile

Microsoft Corporation is a global technology company that develops software, cloud services, devices, gaming products and business solutions. Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, the company is best known for the Windows operating system and Microsoft Office productivity software. Microsoft is headquartered in Redmond, Washington, and serves consumers, businesses, governments and educational institutions worldwide.

Microsoft’s productivity and business offerings include Microsoft 365 applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, along with collaboration tools including Teams.