Nykredit A S Makes New Investment in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Nykredit A S bought a new position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 2,360,736 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $880,602,000. Microsoft accounts for about 2.8% of Nykredit A S’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest holding.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,338,370,000. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in Microsoft during the second quarter worth about $18,306,443,000. Jupiter Topco LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft during the second quarter worth about $6,928,664,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought a new position in Microsoft in the second quarter valued at approximately $5,653,812,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $4,000,706,000. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain constructive ahead of earnings. Oppenheimer raised its price target to $625 from $570, while Truist lifted its target to $600 from $575; both cited strong enterprise demand and sustained Azure growth. Oppenheimer raises Microsoft target ahead of earnings
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street expects continued AI momentum, with Azure growth projected to accelerate toward 45% and Copilot adoption supporting longer-term monetization. Microsoft’s reported cloud backlog and a reported agreement for Anthropic to spend at least $45 billion on Microsoft cloud infrastructure also reinforce demand visibility. Azure AI growth ahead of earnings
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft expanded its AI collaboration with Dayforce across human resources, finance and operations, potentially broadening enterprise use of Microsoft’s AI and cloud ecosystem. Dayforce expands AI collaboration with Microsoft
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft reports after the bell Wednesday. Analysts expect approximately $4.72 EPS and $90.69 billion in revenue, while options markets imply about a 5.09% post-earnings move. Traders are positioned around $555 calls and $460 puts, signaling substantial volatility rather than a clear direction. Microsoft earnings options outlook
• Negative Sentiment: Microsoft is offering voluntary buyouts to roughly 60,000 employees across the U.S., Canada, India and the U.K. The move may reduce costs and redirect resources toward AI, but its scale raises concerns about restructuring, execution and the underlying pressure from heavy data-center investment. Microsoft offers voluntary buyouts to 60,000 employees
• Negative Sentiment: Investors are also weighing rising AI infrastructure costs, capacity constraints and possible margin pressure. A reported delay affecting a Microsoft AI data-center project in the U.K. highlights the practical bottlenecks facing the company’s aggressive capital-spending strategy. Microsoft AI data-center constraints

Microsoft Stock Down 0.2%

MSFT opened at $531.33 on Wednesday. Microsoft Corporation has a 12-month low of $349.20 and a 12-month high of $553.72. The business has a 50 day moving average of $510.19 and a 200-day moving average of $437.69.

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 business had revenue of $90.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $87.62 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.65 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.66 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 19th will be given a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 19th.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on MSFT shares. Phillip Securities cut Microsoft from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 12th. Wolfe Research cut shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 23rd. Melius Research set a $665.00 target price on shares of Microsoft and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 5th. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 price target (up from $575.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $525.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 15th. Forty-four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $596.07.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Amy Hood sold 41,674 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $498.27, for a total value of $20,764,903.98. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 533,624 shares in the company, valued at $265,888,830.48. The trade was a 7.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,810 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owned 42,677 shares in the company, valued at $21,188,276.96. The trade was a 10.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 150,314 shares of company stock valued at $75,404,992. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Microsoft 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.