1,637 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Acquired by Balanced Rock Investment Advisors LLC

Key Points

• Balanced Rock Investment Advisors initiated a Microsoft position by purchasing 1,637 shares valued at approximately $611,000. Institutional investors collectively own 71.13% of Microsoft’s stock.
• Microsoft reported strong quarterly results, with revenue up 17.7% year over year to $90.01 billion and EPS of $4.74, exceeding analyst expectations. The company also raised its quarterly dividend to $0.98 per share.
• Analysts maintain a broadly positive outlook, with a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and a $592.15 price target, though concerns include AI data-center power constraints, reliance on outside AI model providers and uncertainty in the gaming business.

Balanced Rock Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,637 shares of the software giant's stock, valued at approximately $611,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management lifted its stake in Microsoft by 4.0% in the second quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 229,490 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $85,604,000 after buying an additional 8,773 shares during the period. D.B. Root & Company LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,652,000. Markel Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Markel Group Inc. now owns 537,630 shares of the software giant's stock worth $199,014,000 after buying an additional 1,950 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 8.4% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 6,921,677 shares of the software giant's stock worth $2,562,197,000 after buying an additional 537,634 shares during the period. Finally, Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 138.8% during the 1st quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 1,356,359 shares of the software giant's stock worth $502,077,000 after buying an additional 788,297 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $532.95 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $507.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $444.58. Microsoft Corporation has a 12-month low of $349.20 and a 12-month high of $553.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The company 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.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $87.62 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.65 EPS. Microsoft's quarterly revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 issued a dividend of $0.98 per share. 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%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 19th. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio is 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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $660.00 to $662.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $636.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a "buy" rating and set a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, October 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, September 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Microsoft from an "overweight" rating to a "negative" rating in a research note on Monday, October 5th. Forty-three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $592.15.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were 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 directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,810 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $496.48, for a total transaction 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 represents a 10.13% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 150,314 shares of company stock valued at $75,404,992 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

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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