15,148 Shares in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Bought by WNY Asset Management LLC

WNY Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 15,148 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $5,651,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management increased its stake in Microsoft by 4.0% during 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 period. D.B. Root & Company LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter valued at approximately $3,652,000. Markel Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% in the first quarter. Markel Group Inc. now owns 537,630 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $199,014,000 after purchasing an additional 1,950 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 8.4% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 6,921,677 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,562,197,000 after purchasing an additional 537,634 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 138.8% in the first quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 1,356,359 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $502,077,000 after purchasing an additional 788,297 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $575.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 14th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $700.00 to $725.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 1st. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $440.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, September 21st. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane cut Microsoft from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 5th. Forty-three investment 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. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $592.15.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.2%

Microsoft stock opened at $532.95 on Thursday. Microsoft Corporation has a 1-year low of $349.20 and a 1-year high of $553.72. 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 stock has a market cap of $3.96 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.10. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $507.45 and its two-hundred day moving average is $444.58.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share (EPS) 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 the consensus estimate of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.98% and a net margin of 40.31%. Microsoft’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. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.65 EPS for the current fiscal 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 given a dividend of $0.98 per share. This is a boost 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 20.27%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 stock was sold at an average price of $487.89, for a total transaction 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. The trade was a 9.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,810 shares of the company’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 value of $2,388,068.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 42,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,188,276.96. This trade represents a 10.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 150,314 shares of company stock worth $75,404,992 in the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Trending Headlines about Microsoft

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 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.