Winmill & CO. Inc. Purchases New Holdings in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Winmill & CO. Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 39,000 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $14,548,000. Microsoft makes up approximately 3.2% of Winmill & CO. Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 12th biggest holding.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Auto Owners Insurance Co grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 56,160.8% during 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 in the last quarter. Amundi increased its position 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 purchasing an additional 9,814,598 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 10.5% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 29,323,744 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $10,852,884,000 after purchasing an additional 2,784,809 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 22,138,798 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $10,715,379,000 after purchasing an additional 1,599,412 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in Microsoft by 64.3% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 24,264,779 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $8,982,083,000 after purchasing an additional 9,493,778 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on MSFT shares. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $550.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. 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. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $700.00 to $725.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 1st. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $530.00 to $575.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 22nd. Finally, Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 23rd. Forty-two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $589.71.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.9%

Shares of MSFT opened at $529.05 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.23. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $349.20 and a 52-week high of $553.72. The firm has a market cap of $3.93 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.46, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.10. The business’s fifty day moving average is $505.53 and its 200-day moving average is $440.59.

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 the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.50. The business 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 prior year, the company earned $3.65 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate 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. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.98 per share. 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. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 20.27%.

Key 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.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 86,525 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $501.46, for a total value of $43,388,826.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 486,763 shares in the company, valued at approximately $244,092,173.98. This trade represents a 15.09% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Amy Hood sold 41,674 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $498.27, for a total transaction of $20,764,903.98. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 533,624 shares in the company, valued at approximately $265,888,830.48. The trade was a 7.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. Insiders sold a total of 150,314 shares of company stock worth $75,404,992 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

About Microsoft

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.