N10 Assets LLC Buys 17,714 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

N10 Assets LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 17,714 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $6,608,000. Microsoft comprises 2.9% of N10 Assets LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 15th largest holding.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Coastal Bridge Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the 2nd quarter valued at $28,240,000. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth $46,868,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth $1,086,787,000. MASTERINVEST Kapitalanlage GmbH purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth $43,074,000. Finally, PenderFund Capital Management Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,455,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 100,447 shares in the company, valued at $49,007,086.83. The trade was a 9.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Amy Hood sold 41,674 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $498.27, for a total value of $20,764,903.98. Following the sale, 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 position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders have sold 150,314 shares of company stock worth $75,404,992. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $680.00 to $690.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $530.00 to $575.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $700.00 to $725.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 1st. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $525.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 15th. Finally, Raymond James Financial lowered shares of Microsoft from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 23rd. Forty-three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $592.15.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.2%

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $532.95 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $507.45 and a 200-day simple moving average of $444.58. 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 one year low of $349.20 and a one year high of $553.72. The firm has a market cap of $3.96 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.67, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.10.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.50. Microsoft had a net margin of 40.31% and a return on equity of 31.98%. The firm had revenue of $90.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $87.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.65 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 19th. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 20.27%.

Microsoft News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Expectations are building for another earnings beat, with demand for Azure cloud infrastructure, Microsoft 365 and Copilot supporting revenue and earnings growth. The key catalyst will be Microsoft’s October 28 report, where investors will look for accelerating Azure growth and evidence that AI investments are translating into monetization. Microsoft Earnings Preview
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft remains viewed favorably as a relatively cash-generative way to participate in the AI-cloud buildout. While Oracle’s cloud growth is faster, Microsoft’s stronger free cash flow, lower leverage and broad enterprise installed base may provide greater financial resilience as AI capital expenditures rise. Oracle Versus Microsoft
• Positive Sentiment: A new Boeing fleet-intelligence platform, Dataliner, is being built on Microsoft Azure AI Foundry. The partnership could add a recurring enterprise workload for Azure and demonstrate Microsoft’s ability to embed AI in industry-specific applications. Boeing and Microsoft Dataliner
• Positive Sentiment: Tavant’s Microsoft Fabric accelerator is now available through Microsoft Marketplace, potentially making it easier for businesses to deploy Fabric-based analytics and AI solutions across Azure. Tavant Fabric Accelerator
• Neutral Sentiment: GitHub Copilot is reportedly a major customer of Anthropic, highlighting demand for Microsoft’s AI developer tools but also exposing reliance on outside model providers and potential supplier concentration risk. Anthropic Revenue Concentration
• Negative Sentiment: Microsoft’s withdrawal as anchor tenant from a U.K. AI data-center project because of power-supply delays underscores a growing constraint: electricity and grid access may slow Azure’s AI capacity expansion and increase infrastructure costs. Microsoft Withdraws From UK AI Data Center Project
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that elevated prices for components could make Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox, Project Helix, less competitive or pressure demand. The gaming business is also undergoing restructuring, adding uncertainty beyond Azure and productivity software. Project Helix Pricing Concerns

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.