Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Acquired by Petersen Hastings Wealth Advisors Inc.

Petersen Hastings Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 29.8% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 9,432 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,164 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up about 0.3% of Petersen Hastings Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 10th largest holding. Petersen Hastings Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,518,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 51.3% during the 2nd quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Bernzott Capital Advisors acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Frankly Finances LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter worth about $35,000. Timmons Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, Fairway Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 287.0% during 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 during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the subject of several recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Microsoft from $450.00 to $530.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 4th. Evercore set a $528.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. CLSA reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $502.00 to $522.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Finally, Scotiabank reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $510.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Forty-two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $564.27.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 86,525 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $501.46, for a total transaction of $43,388,826.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 486,763 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $244,092,173.98. This trade represents a 15.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,810 shares of Microsoft 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 sale, the executive vice president owned 42,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,188,276.96. This trade represents a 10.13% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 101,335 shares of company stock valued at $50,655,795. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

More Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft reportedly plans to expand data-center capacity to approximately 38 gigawatts by 2032—more than triple its current footprint. The scale of the investment underscores management’s confidence in long-term Azure and AI demand, although the spending commitment also increases financial risk. Microsoft plans 38 gigawatts of data center capacity by 2032
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft expanded its partnership with Talkdesk, allowing customers to buy contact-center AI software with existing Azure commitments through the Azure Marketplace. The arrangement could increase Azure consumption and make enterprise AI adoption easier. Talkdesk and Microsoft expand partnership
• Positive Sentiment: TrueFoundry’s AI Gateway is now available in the Microsoft Marketplace, adding another enterprise AI workload to Azure’s commercial ecosystem. Microsoft is also promoting enforceable privacy controls for schools using AI, which may support adoption in sensitive education markets. TrueFoundry AI Gateway availability
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts and bullish commentary continue to point to Azure’s more-than-$100 billion annual revenue, rising Copilot adoption and Microsoft’s strong profitability as reasons the stock could outperform. However, the shares remain valued near 28 times earnings, leaving less room for disappointment. Microsoft bull case
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that the AI infrastructure buildup will pressure free cash flow and returns on capital. A separate analysis downgraded Microsoft, arguing that the company’s capital-expenditure rotation does not support an optimistic outlook. Microsoft capital expenditure downgrade
• Negative Sentiment: Higher Treasury yields are weighing on expensive technology stocks, while Dynamics 365 Activate faces questions about slowing growth and softer bookings despite its effort to win Salesforce migrations. Microsoft also disclosed a record Patch Tuesday involving 974 vulnerabilities, including two exploited Windows zero-days, highlighting ongoing security and reputational risks. Microsoft Patch Tuesday vulnerabilities

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $492.44 on Friday. 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 Corporation has a 12-month low of $349.20 and a 12-month high of $553.72. The business’s 50 day moving average is $453.75 and its two-hundred day moving average is $418.62. The company has a market capitalization of $3.66 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.42, a P/E/G ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.11.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted 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 business had revenue of $90.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.98% and a net margin of 40.31%.The business’s revenue was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.65 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is a global technology company that develops software, cloud services, devices and digital solutions for consumers, businesses and public-sector organizations. Its products and services include the Windows operating system, Microsoft 365 productivity applications, Teams collaboration software, Dynamics business applications and Azure cloud computing services.

The company also operates LinkedIn, GitHub and Xbox, which includes gaming consoles, video games and related online services.