Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Newly Acquired by August Group Capital Ltd

Key Points

• August Group Capital Ltd. acquired 7,406 Microsoft shares worth approximately $2.76 million, making Microsoft 3% of the fund’s portfolio and its seventh-largest holding.
• Institutional investors own 71.13% of Microsoft, while insiders have sold about 143,009 shares valued at $71.4 million over the past three months.
• Analysts maintain a generally positive outlook, with a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and a $579.84 price target; Microsoft also reported revenue growth of 17.7% and raised its quarterly dividend to $0.98 per share.

August Group Capital Ltd bought a new position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 7,406 shares of the software giant's stock, valued at approximately $2,763,000. Microsoft makes up 3.0% of August Group Capital Ltd's holdings, making the stock its 7th largest position.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Auto Owners Insurance Co grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 56,160.8% in the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 60,116,384 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $29,073,486,000 after purchasing an additional 60,009,531 shares in the last quarter. Amundi increased its position in Microsoft by 30.8% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 41,675,076 shares of the software giant's stock worth $15,426,862,000 after purchasing an additional 9,814,598 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Microsoft by 10.5% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 29,323,744 shares of the software giant's stock worth $10,852,884,000 after purchasing an additional 2,784,809 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in Microsoft by 64.3% during 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 purchasing an additional 9,493,778 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 7.8% during 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 purchasing an additional 1,599,412 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 86,525 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $501.46, for a total value of $43,388,826.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 486,763 shares in the company, valued at approximately $244,092,173.98. This represents a 15.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through 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 firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 100,447 shares of the company's stock, valued at $49,007,086.83. This represents a 9.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 143,009 shares of company stock valued at $71,420,699. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on MSFT. Needham & Company LLC assumed coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, September 23rd. They set a "buy" rating for the company. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of 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 report on Tuesday, September 22nd. BNP Paribas Exane downgraded shares of Microsoft from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, October 5th. Raymond James Financial cut shares of Microsoft from a "moderate buy" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, September 28th. Forty-two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $579.84.

Microsoft News Summary

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.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $541.15 on Tuesday. 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 Corporation has a 12 month low of $349.20 and a 12 month 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 firm's 50-day moving average is $502.22 and its 200 day moving average is $436.28.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.50. The business had revenue of $90.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 40.31% and a return on equity of 31.98%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.65 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.65 EPS 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 paid a dividend of $0.98 per share. This is a positive change 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 of this dividend is Thursday, November 19th. Microsoft's payout ratio is currently 20.27%.

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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