Latash Investments LLC Acquires 4,610 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Key Points

• Latash Investments LLC acquired 4,610 Microsoft shares in the second quarter, valued at approximately $1.72 million. Microsoft now represents 1.3% of the firm’s portfolio and is its fifth-largest holding.
• Institutional investors own 71.13% of Microsoft, while analysts maintain a broadly positive outlook: 42 rate the stock Buy, with a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and a $579.84 price target.
• Microsoft reported quarterly earnings and revenue above expectations, with revenue rising 17.7% year over year. The company also increased its quarterly dividend to $0.98 per share, although insiders have sold $71.4 million of stock over the past three months.

Latash Investments LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm bought 4,610 shares of the software giant's stock, valued at approximately $1,720,000. Microsoft comprises 1.3% of Latash Investments LLC's holdings, making the stock its 5th biggest holding.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 4.0% in the 2nd 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 purchasing an additional 8,773 shares during the period. Markel Group Inc. increased its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 1,950 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 8.4% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 6,921,677 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $2,562,197,000 after buying an additional 537,634 shares during the last quarter. Taylor Securities Services Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at about $2,616,000. Finally, Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 138.8% during the first quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 1,356,359 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $502,077,000 after buying an additional 788,297 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. DA Davidson reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $550.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Weiss Ratings raised Microsoft from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a report on Thursday. Mizuho reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $515.00 to $490.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Citigroup raised Microsoft from a "market outperform" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, October 5th. Finally, Guggenheim reissued a "buy" rating and set a $586.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, July 27th. Forty-two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $579.84.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft 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 transaction of $20,764,903.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 533,624 shares in the company, valued at $265,888,830.48. This represents a 7.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,810 shares of Microsoft 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 transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 42,677 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $21,188,276.96. The trade was a 10.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 143,009 shares of company stock valued at $71,420,699. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.1%

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $541.15 on Tuesday. Microsoft Corporation has a 1-year low of $349.20 and a 1-year high of $553.72. The company has a market capitalization of $4.02 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.13, a PEG ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.10. The stock's 50 day moving average is $502.22 and its two-hundred day moving average is $436.28. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. The business had revenue of $90.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.98% and a net margin of 40.31%. Microsoft's quarterly revenue was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.65 EPS. Equities analysts forecast 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. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 19th will be given a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. This is a positive change from Microsoft's previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 19th. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.27%.

Trending Headlines about Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Maia 300 AI chip is the key catalyst. Microsoft unveiled its third-generation Maia 300 processor and plans to begin production deployments in 2027, eventually scaling the platform to multiple gigawatts and potentially as many as one million chips. The company says Maia 300 can deliver approximately 40% more AI-generated tokens per megawatt or dollar than leading GPU-based systems, which could lower Azure costs and improve margins. Microsoft reveals Maia 300 AI chip
• Positive Sentiment: Greater control over AI supply and economics. Microsoft intends to make Maia a primary architecture for AI inference while continuing to use chips from Nvidia, AMD and Intel. Investors viewed the strategy as a way to reduce dependence on expensive, supply-constrained Nvidia hardware and strengthen Azure’s competitive position. Microsoft to rely more on homegrown AI chips
• Positive Sentiment: Underlying growth remains strong. Recent coverage points to Azure growth guidance of 44%–45%, rising Copilot adoption, a record backlog and more than $50 billion in quarterly capital spending to meet AI demand. These trends reinforce the bullish long-term case, although the October 28 earnings report will test whether growth remains above investor expectations.
• Neutral Sentiment: AI safety and infrastructure constraints remain in focus. CEO Satya Nadella and President Brad Smith called for stronger safeguards, emergency controls and clearer AI regulation. Separately, industry leaders highlighted electricity and cooling capacity as potential limits on AI expansion. These issues may increase compliance and infrastructure costs but could also benefit Microsoft’s enterprise-focused approach.
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory and legal risks increased. The U.S. suspended Microsoft from the PERM green-card program amid scrutiny of its H-1B hiring practices, potentially complicating access to technical talent. Norway also fined Microsoft subsidiary Xandr approximately €8.6 million for sharing Grindr user data. Microsoft PERM suspension
• Negative Sentiment: Valuation and execution risks persist. Some analysts downgraded Microsoft amid concerns about elevated AI capital spending, high expectations and the need for Azure growth to remain above 40%. The departure of longtime science president Peter Lee is an additional, though relatively minor, leadership concern.

About Microsoft

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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