Front Street Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 9,485 shares of the software giant's stock, valued at approximately $3,587,000.

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Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Auto Owners Insurance Co raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 56,160.8% during 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 during the period. Amundi increased its stake in Microsoft by 30.8% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 41,675,076 shares of the software giant's stock worth $15,426,862,000 after buying an additional 9,814,598 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Microsoft by 10.5% during 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 buying an additional 2,784,809 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 7.8% during the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 22,138,798 shares of the software giant's stock worth $10,715,379,000 after buying an additional 1,599,412 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 64.3% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 24,264,779 shares of the software giant's stock worth $8,982,083,000 after buying an additional 9,493,778 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSFT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley downgraded Microsoft from an "overweight" rating to a "negative" rating in a research note on Monday, October 5th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Microsoft from $550.00 to $610.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 30th. Wolfe Research lowered Microsoft from an "outperform" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 23rd. Benchmark restated a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Tigress Financial upped their target price on Microsoft from $680.00 to $690.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Forty-two equities research 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $589.71.

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View Our Latest Stock Report on MSFT

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,810 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 42,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,188,276.96. The trade was a 10.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $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. Insiders have sold a total of 150,314 shares of company stock worth $75,404,992 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Microsoft

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Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts expect Microsoft to remain the only major hyperscaler with positive free cash flow over the next year despite heavy AI investment. This reinforces confidence that the company can fund data-center expansion without substantial external financing. Microsoft Free Cash Flow Expected to Remain Positive
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft signed a 20-year agreement with NiSource for approximately 1,100 megawatts of power for an Indiana data-center campus beginning in 2028. Securing electricity supports future Azure capacity as grid constraints become a bottleneck for AI expansion. Microsoft Signs Power Deal With NiSource
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s custom Maia AI chips and reports that a new model achieved comparable or better performance than OpenAI’s system using a fraction of the computing power could eventually reduce reliance on expensive third-party GPUs and improve AI economics. Microsoft Wants to Make AI Cheaper
• Neutral Sentiment: Investors are focused on Azure growth, Copilot adoption, AI monetization and capital expenditures ahead of earnings. Strong demand could support the shares, but the market wants evidence that revenue growth is translating into sustainable margins.
• Negative Sentiment: The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority is investigating Microsoft’s grip on business software and says Microsoft and Amazon Web Services may need to do more to address cloud-service barriers. Potential remedies could increase compliance costs or weaken customer-lock-in advantages. UK Regulator Targets Microsoft’s Business Software Grip
• Negative Sentiment: Questions remain over whether custom chips will deliver meaningful savings: AI infrastructure, power and data-center commitments are rising rapidly, while Microsoft is reportedly seeking substantial cost reductions in Azure. That creates concern about near-term free-cash-flow and margin pressure.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $529.05 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $3.93 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.10. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $505.53 and its 200-day simple moving average is $441.16. 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 Corporation has a 1 year low of $349.20 and a 1 year high of $553.72.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last issued 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. The business had revenue of $90.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 40.31% and a return on equity of 31.98%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.65 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

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

About Microsoft

(Free Report)

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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Want to see what other hedge funds are holding MSFT? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report).

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