Sax Wealth Advisors LLC Boosts Stake in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Sax Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 15.5% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 42,120 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,651 shares during the period. Sax Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $15,592,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. WELLCOME TRUST LTD THE as trustee of the WELLCOME TRUST lifted its stake in Microsoft by 13.0% during the second quarter. WELLCOME TRUST LTD THE as trustee of the WELLCOME TRUST now owns 1,695,117 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $632,313,000 after purchasing an additional 195,117 shares in the last quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the second quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 2,430,917 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $906,781,000 after buying an additional 6,611 shares in the last quarter. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 7.5% in the 2nd quarter. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC now owns 7,627 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,845,000 after buying an additional 531 shares during the period. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 6.0% in the 2nd quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 38,852 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $14,493,000 after buying an additional 2,196 shares during the period. Finally, Ledgewood Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 14.1% during the 2nd quarter. Ledgewood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,539 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $574,000 after acquiring an additional 190 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $487.31 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $421.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $409.73. The stock has a market cap of $3.62 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.10. Microsoft Corporation has a 12-month low of $349.20 and a 12-month high of $553.72.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of the company’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 value of $4,878,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 100,447 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $49,007,086.83. This 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 through this hyperlink. Also, 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 completion of 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 37,310 shares of company stock valued at $17,256,219. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on MSFT. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and set a $586.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, July 27th. President Capital increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 price objective (up from $570.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Scotiabank restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $510.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Dbs Bank cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $678.00 to $573.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Forty-two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $560.27.

Key Stories Impacting 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

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).