Applied Finance Capital Management LLC Has $46.65 Million Stock Position in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Applied Finance Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 7.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 126,019 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 8,814 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises 3.5% of Applied Finance Capital Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Applied Finance Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $46,649,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in MSFT. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 51.3% in the 2nd quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Bernzott Capital Advisors bought a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. Timmons Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Fairway Wealth LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 287.0% in the fourth quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Finally, University of Illinois Foundation bought a new stake in Microsoft in the second quarter worth about $50,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Microsoft News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft launched Project Perception, an agentic security platform designed to detect and respond to AI-powered cyberattacks in real time. The company also introduced its first in-house cybersecurity model, MAI-Cyber-1-Flash. The products could strengthen Microsoft’s position in the growing enterprise cybersecurity market and create additional demand for Azure and security software. Microsoft launches its first cybersecurity model and a new agentic cybersecurity system
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and investors continue to report healthy Azure and broader cloud demand, with AI demand reportedly exceeding available capacity. UBS maintained a Buy rating, while Guggenheim reaffirmed its Buy rating with a $586 price target. Consensus expectations for Wednesday call for approximately $87.42 billion in revenue and $4.21 in earnings per share. Microsoft faces AI capex scrutiny as it prepares to report Q4 results
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s expanded partnership with Mistral and its work on custom chips support the company’s strategy of making Azure a leading platform for enterprise AI workloads. Investors view continued AI adoption and cloud monetization as potential catalysts for the earnings report.
• Neutral Sentiment: The immediate focus is Microsoft’s planned roughly $190 billion in annual capital spending, a reported 61% increase. The investment could support long-term Azure growth, but the market wants evidence that cloud revenue and AI demand are growing fast enough to justify the cost. Options markets imply a potentially large post-earnings move of about 7.24%. Microsoft Plans $190 Billion of Capital Spending This Year
• Negative Sentiment: Investors have recently been less willing to reward strong technology earnings because of concerns about AI spending returns, heavy debt issuance across the AI ecosystem, and margin pressure. Microsoft’s elevated spending could therefore weigh on the stock if Azure growth or forward guidance disappoints.
• Negative Sentiment: Several law firms publicized securities class-action lawsuits alleging investor harm and misleading disclosures related to Microsoft’s Copilot positioning, data silos, and interoperability. The claims are an overhang, although their near-term financial impact is uncertain. Microsoft investor class-action announcement

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on MSFT shares. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $515.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday. Finally, Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $525.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Forty-two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $554.73.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.9%

Microsoft stock opened at $389.10 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.27. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $349.20 and a fifty-two week high of $555.45. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $397.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $406.99. The firm has a market cap of $2.89 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.13.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.06 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $82.89 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $81.44 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.94% and a net margin of 39.34%.The firm’s revenue was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.46 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 21.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.34, for a total value of $519,111.08. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 46,003 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,922,874.02. The trade was a 2.67% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.99, for a total transaction of $7,145,345.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 110,477 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,928,792.23. The trade was a 12.30% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 23,762 shares of company stock valued at $10,508,361 in the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Microsoft Profile

Microsoft Corporation is a global technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft develops, licenses and supports a broad range of software products, services and devices for consumers, enterprises and governments worldwide. Its operations span personal computing, productivity software, cloud infrastructure, enterprise applications, developer tools and gaming.

Microsoft’s product portfolio includes the Windows operating system and the Microsoft 365 suite of productivity and collaboration tools (Office apps, Outlook, Teams).