Heck Capital Advisors LLC Buys 22,229 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Heck Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 163.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 35,800 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 22,229 shares during the period. Heck Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $13,354,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 717,942,580 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $347,211,391,000 after purchasing an additional 15,955,898 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Microsoft by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 306,150,608 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $148,060,557,000 after purchasing an additional 6,388,930 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 182,618,400 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $88,056,019,000 after purchasing an additional 1,911,142 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley raised its stake in Microsoft by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 121,220,561 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $58,624,690,000 after buying an additional 980,439 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $50,664,631,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s strong Azure and cloud performance helped drive a rally of roughly 48% from its June low, with the stock reaching a 10-month high and moving above a technical buy point. A recently formed “golden cross,” in which the 50-day moving average moved above the 200-day average, also supports bullish momentum. Bull v. Bear: MSFT Hits 2026 High, is a New Record Next?
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft is reportedly in early discussions with Moonshot AI regarding its Kimi K3 model. A potential arrangement could add another AI service to Azure and create a new revenue stream, although negotiations are not finalized. MSFT Stock Alert: Moonshot Could Give Microsoft Another AI Revenue Stream
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s deployment of more than 25 AI agents across its supply chain illustrates early enterprise use cases for agentic AI, including demand forecasting, freight routing and inventory management. Successful internal deployments could support broader adoption of Microsoft’s AI tools. Microsoft Puts 25 AI Agents to Work on Supply Chain Costs
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft is spending heavily on AI infrastructure—approximately $175 billion this year—and has reassured employees that data-center investment is intended to support long-term growth. Azure reportedly surpassed $100 billion, while contracted backlog and commercial bookings remain major valuation supports. Microsoft Reassures Employees About AI Data Center Impacts
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft’s gains have helped lift major indexes, but the strength is concentrated in a few mega-cap technology stocks while small caps and many sectors weaken as bond yields rise. This creates a broader market-risk backdrop despite Microsoft’s relative strength. Dow Jones Futures: Microsoft, Titans Mask Market Weakness
• Negative Sentiment: One analyst argued that Microsoft’s valuation rerating may be largely complete for now, raising the risk of profit-taking after the recent monthly rally. At the current valuation, further gains may require continued upward revisions to cloud and AI growth expectations. Microsoft: The Rerating Is Probably Over For Now

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on MSFT. Mizuho cut their price objective on Microsoft from $515.00 to $490.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on Microsoft from $502.00 to $522.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Raymond James Financial downgraded Microsoft from a “market perform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. UBS Group set a $525.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein set a $660.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Forty-two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $560.27.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $513.53 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $430.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $412.45. The stock has a market cap of $3.81 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.59, a PEG ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.11. Microsoft Corporation has a 1-year low of $349.20 and a 1-year high of $553.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. The firm had revenue of $90.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.98% and a net margin of 40.31%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.65 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,810 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $496.48, for a total transaction of $2,388,068.80. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 42,677 shares in the company, valued at $21,188,276.96. This represents a 10.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 100,447 shares in the company, valued at $49,007,086.83. This represents a 9.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 37,310 shares of company stock valued at $17,256,219 in the last three months. 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).