E Wealth Partners LLC Makes New Investment in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Key Points

• E Wealth Partners LLC initiated a Microsoft position in the second quarter, buying 1,462 shares valued at approximately $545,000. Institutional investors collectively own 71.13% of Microsoft.
• Wall Street remains broadly bullish: 43 analysts rate Microsoft a Buy, with a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and an average price target of $592.15.
• Microsoft reported quarterly revenue of $90.01 billion and earnings of $4.74 per share, exceeding estimates, while raising its quarterly dividend to $0.98 per share. Insiders, however, sold about $75.4 million of stock over the past 90 days.

E Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 1,462 shares of the software giant's stock, valued at approximately $545,000. Microsoft accounts for about 0.4% of E Wealth Partners LLC's holdings, making the stock its 13th biggest position.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Sound Income Strategies LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 36,558 shares of the software giant's stock worth $13,637,000 after purchasing an additional 1,811 shares in the last quarter. First Pacific Financial lifted its stake in Microsoft by 36.4% during the second quarter. First Pacific Financial now owns 28,183 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $10,513,000 after purchasing an additional 7,527 shares during the last quarter. Hamilton Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 12.3% during the second quarter. Hamilton Capital Partners LLC now owns 57,868 shares of the software giant's stock worth $21,586,000 after buying an additional 6,339 shares in the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 3.2% during the second quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 180,462 shares of the software giant's stock worth $67,316,000 after buying an additional 5,662 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brindle & Bay Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft in the second quarter worth approximately $756,000. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on MSFT. Yorkville Ives assumed coverage on Microsoft in a report on Monday, October 5th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $615.00 price target on the stock. Citizens Jmp reissued a "market outperform" rating and set a $550.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, September 15th. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their target price on Microsoft from $522.00 to $608.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, September 21st. Stifel Nicolaus raised Microsoft from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $530.00 to $575.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 22nd. Finally, Truist Financial reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $575.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Forty-three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $592.15.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $487.89, for a total value 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 approximately $49,007,086.83. This represents a 9.05% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,810 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated 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 owned 42,677 shares of the company's stock, valued at $21,188,276.96. The trade was a 10.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 150,314 shares of company stock worth $75,404,992. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $532.95 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $507.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $444.58. Microsoft Corporation has a 52 week low of $349.20 and a 52 week 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. The company has a market cap of $3.96 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.10.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $87.62 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company 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 expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 19th will be issued a $0.98 dividend. 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 dividend payout ratio is currently 20.27%.

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

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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