2,501 Shares in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Purchased by Wealth Management Strategies Inc.

Wealth Management Strategies Inc. bought a new position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 2,501 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $933,000. Microsoft makes up about 0.4% of Wealth Management Strategies Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest holding.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. WNY Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at $5,651,000. Bank OZK acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 2nd quarter valued at $10,538,000. Hamilton Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 2nd quarter valued at $4,778,000. Hayek Kallen Investment Management bought a new stake in Microsoft in the second quarter worth $21,844,000. Finally, Old North State Trust LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft in the second quarter worth $5,254,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting 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 Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $532.95 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $3.96 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.67, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.10. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $507.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $444.58. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $349.20 and a twelve month high of $553.72. 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 (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $90.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $87.62 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.65 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Investors 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 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%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, 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 directly owned 533,624 shares in the company, valued at $265,888,830.48. This represents a 7.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,810 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the executive vice president owned 42,677 shares in the company, valued at $21,188,276.96. This trade represents a 10.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 150,314 shares of company stock worth $75,404,992 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the topic of several analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, October 12th. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price target on Microsoft from $522.00 to $608.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 21st. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price target on Microsoft from $660.00 to $662.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday. Evercore upgraded Microsoft from an “underperform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 5th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on Microsoft from $525.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 15th. Forty-three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $592.15.

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.