Infrastructure Capital Advisors LLC Buys New Shares in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Infrastructure Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 15,776 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $5,885,000.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Auto Owners Insurance Co raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 56,160.8% during the 4th 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 lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 30.8% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 41,675,076 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $15,426,862,000 after buying an additional 9,814,598 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings 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 buying an additional 2,784,809 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 7.8% in 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 boosted 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 during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MSFT. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Microsoft from $575.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. UBS Group upped their price objective on Microsoft from $525.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $660.00 target price on Microsoft in a research report on Monday, August 10th. CLSA reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Citizens Jmp reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $550.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, September 15th. Forty-two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $589.71.

Key Stories Impacting Microsoft

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 Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $529.05 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.93 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.10. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $505.53 and a 200 day moving average price of $440.59. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $349.20 and a fifty-two 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.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.50. The company had revenue of $90.01 billion during 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%. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.65 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.98 per share. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 19th. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 20.27%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $487.89, for a total transaction of $4,878,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 100,447 shares in the company, valued at $49,007,086.83. This trade represents a 9.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 86,525 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $501.46, for a total value of $43,388,826.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 486,763 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $244,092,173.98. The trade was 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. Insiders sold 150,314 shares of company stock worth $75,404,992 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.