Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. Acquires 2,196 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 6.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 38,852 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 2,196 shares during the quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $14,493,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Ledgewood Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 14.1% during the 2nd quarter. Ledgewood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,539 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $574,000 after acquiring an additional 190 shares during the period. Strategic Point Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 8.5% in the second quarter. Strategic Point Investment Advisors LLC now owns 954 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $356,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the period. Worth Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 31.0% in the second quarter. Worth Asset Management LLC now owns 7,532 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,809,000 after purchasing an additional 1,781 shares during the period. Norway Savings Bank increased its stake in Microsoft by 4.2% in the second quarter. Norway Savings Bank now owns 20,652 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $7,704,000 after purchasing an additional 823 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 3.9% in the second quarter. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,183 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,306,000 after purchasing an additional 230 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s data-center expansion is becoming central to the bullish case. Analysts argue that demand is already supported by booked orders, with the company’s commercial backlog reportedly reaching approximately $678 billion. The opportunity depends on how quickly Microsoft can add capacity and deliver Azure AI services. Microsoft Stock’s Upside Now Runs Through Its Data Center Build
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple market commentaries remain constructive on Microsoft’s enterprise AI platform, citing Azure, Office and the company’s broader software ecosystem as sources of a durable competitive moat. Recent earnings also showed strong momentum, with revenue growth of 17.7% and earnings exceeding expectations. Microsoft Stock in 2027: My Prediction Is That It Still Beats the Market
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s upcoming Xbox release schedule could help stabilize or revive gaming revenue after a recent sales slowdown, although the impact depends on the performance of the new titles. Can Xbox’s Upcoming Gaming Roster Lift MSFT’s Gaming Revenues?
• Neutral Sentiment: Reports that employees shared compensation details and monthly AI usage costs in internal spreadsheets provide transparency but have limited direct earnings implications. They may nevertheless draw attention to Microsoft’s workforce costs and the scale of internal AI adoption. Microsoft employees reveal how much cash they’re burning on AI
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that heavy AI infrastructure spending is outpacing shareholder distributions and could weigh on free cash flow, margins and future dividend growth. Related commentary also highlights the broader debt burden associated with the AI buildout. Microsoft’s AI spending and dividend costs
• Negative Sentiment: Australia’s new rules requiring large digital platforms to compensate local news publishers create additional obligations for LinkedIn and could modestly increase regulatory and operating costs. Microsoft Gets New Australia News Rules

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on MSFT shares. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Barclays dropped their price target on Microsoft from $545.00 to $512.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. China Renaissance cut their price target on Microsoft from $630.00 to $550.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $660.00 price objective on Microsoft in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $502.00 to $522.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Forty-two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $560.27.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.8%

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $487.31 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 1.22. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $421.37 and a 200-day moving average price of $409.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.62 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.10. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $349.20 and a 1 year high of $553.72.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. The company had revenue of $90.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 40.31% and a return on equity of 31.98%. The firm’s revenue was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.65 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be paid a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 20.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 110,477 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,928,792.23. The trade was a 12.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,810 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $496.48, for a total value of $2,388,068.80. Following the transaction, 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 disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 37,310 shares of company stock worth $17,256,219 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

About Microsoft

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).