Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Stock Bought by State Street Corp

Key Points

• State Street increased its Microsoft stake by 2.9% in the second quarter, adding nearly 8.95 million shares to hold about 315.7 million shares valued at $117.7 billion. Institutional investors collectively own 71.13% of the stock.
• Microsoft beat quarterly earnings and revenue expectations, with revenue up 18.8% year over year, and raised its quarterly dividend from $0.91 to $0.98 per share. Analysts overall maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating.
• Investor sentiment also faces concerns over AI infrastructure execution: data-center delays have raised questions about when new capacity will come online and whether heavy AI investment will generate sufficient cloud returns.

State Street Corp raised its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 2.9% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 315,653,206 shares of the software giant's stock after acquiring an additional 8,944,917 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 2.3% of State Street Corp's portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest holding. State Street Corp owned approximately 4.25% of Microsoft worth $117,744,959,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter worth about $27,338,370,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 64,375,360 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $24,013,297,000 after buying an additional 543,172 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $18,306,443,000. Amundi increased its stake in Microsoft by 12.0% in the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 46,694,778 shares of the software giant's stock worth $17,418,076,000 after acquiring an additional 5,019,702 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Microsoft by 10.5% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 29,323,744 shares of the software giant's stock worth $10,852,884,000 after acquiring an additional 2,784,809 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the topic of several recent research reports. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on Microsoft from $680.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Microsoft from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a report on Thursday, October 8th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $625.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 29th. Phillip Securities downgraded shares of Microsoft from a "moderate buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, October 12th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $640.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-five have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $609.54.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, EVP Amy Hood sold 7,305 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $545.42, for a total transaction of $3,984,293.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 555,396 shares of the company's stock, valued at $302,924,086.32. The trade was a 1.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 86,525 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 486,763 shares in the company, valued at $244,092,173.98. This trade represents a 15.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 135,504 shares of company stock valued at $68,138,024. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Key Stories Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Recent results provide a counterpoint: Microsoft beat quarterly earnings and revenue estimates, while strong Azure demand and AI adoption support growth in its cloud business. MSFT Q1 Earnings Call Highlights Azure Growth and AI Spending
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft’s decision not to take up an option to expand Nscale’s Texas data-center capacity appears connected to construction delays and tighter scrutiny of infrastructure partners. It may reflect capital discipline and project execution concerns, rather than a broad retreat from AI investment. Microsoft tightens oversight of neocloud data center projects
• Negative Sentiment: The abandoned expansion has stoked investor concerns about delayed AI capacity coming online and whether heavy data-center investment will generate sufficient cloud returns. Reports of an AI-spending shortfall have also weighed on sentiment toward infrastructure partners and Microsoft’s growth outlook. Why Microsoft Stock is Down Today
• Negative Sentiment: Technology shares sold off broadly late Thursday, adding sector-wide pressure to MSFT. Sector Update: Tech Stocks Tumble Late Afternoon

Microsoft Price Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $535.93 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.97, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.05. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $349.20 and a 1 year high of $559.15. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $516.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $439.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 1.21.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 28th. The software giant reported $4.89 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $4.72 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $92.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $90.62 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.28% and a net margin of 41.17%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 18.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $4.13 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.89 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 19th will be given a $0.98 dividend. This is a boost from Microsoft's previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 19th. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio is 20.46%.

Microsoft Company Profile

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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