TD Cowen Cuts Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target to $625.00

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its target price lowered by TD Cowen from $655.00 to $625.00 in a report published on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. TD Cowen currently has a buy rating on the software giant’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also issued reports on MSFT. HSBC increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $643.00 to $648.00 in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Cantor Fitzgerald set a $639.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $650.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, January 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $620.79.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.5%

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $450.93 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.35 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.07, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.07. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $479.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $501.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.39. Microsoft has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.65 by $0.48. The firm had revenue of $77.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $75.49 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.45% and a net margin of 35.71%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.30 EPS. Research analysts expect that Microsoft will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 19th will be given a dividend of $0.91 per share. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $478.72, for a total value of $1,364,352.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 55,782 shares in the company, valued at $26,703,959.04. The trade was a 4.86% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total value of $19,967,640.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 461,597 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $239,402,668.08. This represents a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Microsoft in the second quarter valued at approximately $50,493,678,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 564,387.1% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 90,549,369 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $45,040,162,000 after acquiring an additional 90,533,328 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft in the 1st quarter valued at about $18,733,827,000. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 500.0% during the third quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 59,543,261 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $30,840,432,000 after purchasing an additional 49,618,571 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 49,640.3% during the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 29,967,038 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $14,905,904,000 after purchasing an additional 29,906,791 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Key Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: High-visibility marketing + product partnership — Microsoft announced a multi-year technology and sponsorship deal with the Mercedes‑AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, raising brand exposure for Azure and AI capabilities and signaling enterprise demand for cloud/AI partnerships. Mercedes reveal images, announce Microsoft deal
• Positive Sentiment: Government win — Microsoft landed a roughly $170M Air Force Cloud One task order for Azure through 2028, validating Azure’s government demand and recurring-revenue profile. Defense contracts reduce revenue uncertainty and support cloud backlog visibility. Air Force awards $170M Cloud One contract
• Positive Sentiment: Institutional conviction — Activist/hedge investors (Third Point’s Dan Loeb) increased stakes in Microsoft, signaling belief in MSFT’s AI/cloud growth despite 2025 volatility. That buying can support the stock ahead of earnings. Billionaire investor doubles down on AI, boosts stakes
• Positive Sentiment: Consumer/engagement catalyst — Xbox Developer_Direct presentation lifted sentiment around gaming/content growth and monetization opportunities for Microsoft’s consumer franchises. Xbox Developer_Direct 2026 coverage
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst views remain mixed but generally constructive — Several firms reiterated Buy/Overweight ratings (Jefferies, Guggenheim, Wells Fargo) even as price targets were trimmed in places, reflecting confidence in long‑term AI/cloud upside but acknowledgement of near‑term risks. Jefferies buy rating
• Negative Sentiment: Service outage hit — A Microsoft 365/Outlook outage disrupted access to email, files and meetings for thousands of users, creating immediate operational risk for enterprise customers and short‑term headline pressure on trust in cloud reliability. Microsoft 365 outage report
• Negative Sentiment: Margin and earnings concerns — Analysts and commentaries flagged cloud/AI margins as a key “tripwire” into the upcoming fiscal Q2 results; higher data‑center power and capacity costs could pressure near‑term margins if revenue mix doesn’t improve. That is weighing on the stock into earnings. Cloud margins are the tripwire ahead of FQ2
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst cuts/downgrades — A few shops trimmed price targets or signaled range‑bound outlooks (Rothschild, TD Cowen, others), which feeds short‑term selling pressure given MSFT’s recent pullback. Rothschild price target cut

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).