12,808 Shares in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Purchased by Hamilton Capital LLC

Key Points

• Hamilton Capital LLC purchased 12,808 Microsoft shares worth approximately $4.78 million, making Microsoft its 15th-largest holding. Institutional investors collectively own 71.13% of the stock.
• Analysts remain broadly bullish, with 43 Buy ratings, an average “Moderate Buy” consensus, and an average price target of $592.15. Microsoft also exceeded quarterly earnings and revenue expectations, reporting $4.74 in EPS and $90.01 billion in revenue.
• Microsoft raised its quarterly dividend to $0.98 per share, equivalent to an annualized $3.92 payout and a 0.7% yield. Recent insider activity was negative, with executives selling approximately $75.4 million in stock over the past three months.

Hamilton Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 12,808 shares of the software giant's stock, valued at approximately $4,778,000. Microsoft makes up about 0.2% of Hamilton Capital LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest holding.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of MSFT. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,338,370,000. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in Microsoft in the 2nd quarter valued at about $18,306,443,000. Amundi grew its position in Microsoft by 30.8% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 41,675,076 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $15,426,862,000 after acquiring an additional 9,814,598 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Microsoft by 10.5% during 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. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in Microsoft by 64.3% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 24,264,779 shares of the software giant's stock worth $8,982,083,000 after purchasing an additional 9,493,778 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Amy Hood sold 41,674 shares of the 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 transaction, the executive vice president owned 533,624 shares of the company's stock, valued at $265,888,830.48. This represents a 7.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through 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 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 transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 42,677 shares in the company, valued at $21,188,276.96. This trade represents a 10.13% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders have sold 150,314 shares of company stock worth $75,404,992. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on MSFT shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $600.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, October 12th. KeyCorp restated an "overweight" rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, September 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $640.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $522.00 to $608.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, September 21st. Finally, Evercore upgraded shares of Microsoft from an "underperform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, October 5th. Forty-three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $592.15.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $532.95 on Thursday. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $349.20 and a 52-week high of $553.72. The company has a 50 day moving average of $507.45 and a 200 day moving average of $444.58. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The company has a market capitalization of $3.96 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.10.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $90.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $87.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.65 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.98 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 19th. This is an increase 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%. Microsoft's payout ratio is presently 20.27%.

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 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.

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