29,011 Shares in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Purchased by Alta Advisers Ltd

Key Points

• Alta Advisers Ltd. acquired 29,011 Microsoft shares worth approximately $10.8 million, making Microsoft its ninth-largest holding and representing about 2.5% of its portfolio.
• Institutional investors own 71.13% of Microsoft, while company insiders have sold roughly $75.4 million in shares over the past three months, including sales by CEOs Satya Nadella and Judson Althoff.
• Microsoft reported quarterly revenue of $90.01 billion and EPS of $4.74, surpassing analyst expectations. Analysts remain broadly positive, with a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and a $589.71 target price, while AI-driven Azure growth and a dividend increase to $0.98 per quarter support the outlook.

Alta Advisers Ltd acquired a new position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 29,011 shares of the software giant's stock, valued at approximately $10,822,000. Microsoft makes up about 2.5% of Alta Advisers Ltd's investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest holding.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Auto Owners Insurance Co increased its stake in 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 buying an additional 60,009,531 shares in the last quarter. Amundi raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 30.8% during the first 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 during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted 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 valued at $10,852,884,000 after acquiring an additional 2,784,809 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 1,599,412 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 9,493,778 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 86,525 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $501.46, for a total transaction of $43,388,826.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 486,763 shares in the company, valued at $244,092,173.98. This represents a 15.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $487.89, for a total transaction of $4,878,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 100,447 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $49,007,086.83. This trade represents a 9.05% 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. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Key Stories Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: UBS raised its price target to $675 from $525 and reiterated a Buy rating, citing accelerating Azure and Microsoft 365 growth driven by artificial intelligence. The firm believes Microsoft’s valuation remains reasonable despite its recent rally. UBS raises Microsoft price target
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple Wall Street firms have lifted their targets, with analysts highlighting Azure momentum, approximately 30 million Copilot seats, Microsoft’s commercial backlog and the potential for a larger-than-usual earnings beat. The October 28 results will provide an important test of whether AI spending is translating into revenue and profit.
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s Maia 300 custom AI accelerator is expected to scale across Azure data centers and reportedly deliver more tokens per megawatt than conventional GPU systems. The chip could reduce inference costs and Microsoft’s dependence on Nvidia and AMD hardware. Microsoft Maia 300 AI chip
• Positive Sentiment: AI care-management company Tucuvi joined Microsoft’s Pegasus startup program, potentially expanding Microsoft’s enterprise AI pipeline and go-to-market reach in healthcare. Microsoft also increased its quarterly dividend to $0.98 from $0.91, signaling continued confidence in cash generation. Tucuvi joins Microsoft Pegasus Program
• Neutral Sentiment: Reports that Azure management is seeking roughly 20% cost reductions could improve efficiency and margins, but also underscore the pressure created by Microsoft’s substantial AI data-center investments.
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft’s $10 million contribution to a White House ballroom project is unlikely to affect near-term financial results, though it could attract political or reputational scrutiny. Microsoft White House ballroom contribution
• Negative Sentiment: Higher inflation and bond yields have pressured AI valuations and raised concerns about the financing cost and returns of large infrastructure projects. Microsoft’s strong balance sheet makes it less vulnerable than smaller AI companies, but valuation sensitivity remains a risk.
• Negative Sentiment: Phillip Securities downgraded Microsoft to Hold, while reports of security vulnerabilities, executive share sales and intense competition from rapidly growing AI companies add caution. Amy Hood’s sale was made under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan, limiting its significance.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $539.44 on Friday. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $504.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $439.96. The company has a market capitalization of $4.01 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.10. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $349.20 and a 1 year high of $553.72. 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 (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.50. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.98% and a net margin of 40.31%. The business had revenue of $90.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $87.62 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.65 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 19th will be given a $0.98 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 19th. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. This is an increase from Microsoft's previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio is presently 20.27%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on MSFT shares. Raymond James Financial downgraded Microsoft from a "moderate buy" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 23rd. Phillip Securities lowered shares of Microsoft from a "moderate buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Microsoft from an "overweight" rating to a "negative" rating in a research report on Monday, October 5th. Citizens Jmp reiterated a "market outperform" rating and issued a $550.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, September 15th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 22nd. Forty-two investment 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's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $589.71.

Microsoft Company Profile

Microsoft Corporation is a global technology company that develops software, cloud services, devices, gaming products and business solutions. Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, the company is best known for the Windows operating system and Microsoft Office productivity software. Microsoft is headquartered in Redmond, Washington, and serves consumers, businesses, governments and educational institutions worldwide.

Microsoft's productivity and business offerings include Microsoft 365 applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, along with collaboration tools including Teams.

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