28,250 Shares in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Acquired by Bank OZK

Key Points

• Bank OZK acquired 28,250 Microsoft shares worth approximately $10.5 million in the second quarter, making Microsoft its seventh-largest holding and representing about 3.1% of its portfolio.
• Microsoft received a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating from analysts, with an average price target of $592.15, although recent insider activity included approximately $75.4 million in stock sales over 90 days.
• Microsoft’s latest quarterly results exceeded expectations, with revenue rising 17.7% year over year, while the company increased its quarterly dividend to $0.98 per share. Investors are focused on upcoming results and whether Azure and AI investments are accelerating growth.

Bank OZK bought a new stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 28,250 shares of the software giant's stock, valued at approximately $10,538,000. Microsoft accounts for about 3.1% of Bank OZK's portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Frankly Finances LLC bought a new position in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth $35,000. Bard Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the second quarter worth $37,000. PMV Capital Advisers LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft in the second quarter valued at $38,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Microsoft by 37.4% in the second quarter. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. now owns 125 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Persistent Asset Partners Ltd bought a new stake in Microsoft in the second quarter valued at $60,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $487.89, for a total value of $4,878,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 100,447 shares in the company, valued at $49,007,086.83. This trade represents a 9.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,810 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $496.48, for a total value of $2,388,068.80. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 42,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,188,276.96. The trade was a 10.13% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 150,314 shares of company stock valued at $75,404,992. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on MSFT shares. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, September 10th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $700.00 to $725.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, October 1st. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Microsoft from an "outperform" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 23rd. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $440.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, September 21st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $660.00 to $662.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday. Forty-three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $592.15.

Key Headlines 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

MSFT stock opened at $532.95 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization 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 has a 50-day simple moving average of $507.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $444.58. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $349.20 and a fifty-two week 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 - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. The firm had revenue of $90.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 40.31% and a return on equity of 31.98%. Microsoft's revenue was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.65 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 19th will be paid a $0.98 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 19th. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. This is an increase from Microsoft's previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.27%.

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.

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