Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target Lowered to $530.00 at Wolfe Research

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price objective cut by Wolfe Research from $625.00 to $530.00 in a research note published on Thursday,MarketScreener reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the software giant’s stock.

MSFT has been the topic of a number of other reports. BNP Paribas Exane upped their price objective on Microsoft from $632.00 to $659.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their target price on Microsoft from $630.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Raymond James Financial lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Wedbush reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $625.00 to $575.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Finally, Arete Research boosted their price target on Microsoft from $710.00 to $730.00 in a research report on Monday, October 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $597.73.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT stock traded up $2.87 on Thursday, reaching $436.37. The stock had a trading volume of 6,379,507 shares, compared to its average volume of 31,381,666. Microsoft has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $555.45. The stock has a market cap of $3.24 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.40. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $476.67 and a 200 day simple moving average of $500.21.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.86 by $0.28. The company had revenue of $81.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $80.28 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.48% and a net margin of 39.04%.Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.23 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 25.89%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $478.72, for a total value of $1,364,352.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 55,782 shares in the company, valued at $26,703,959.04. This represents a 4.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider owned 461,597 shares in the company, valued at $239,402,668.08. This represents a 7.70% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 54,100 shares of company stock valued at $27,598,872 over the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Microsoft by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 717,942,580 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $347,211,391,000 after acquiring an additional 15,955,898 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 299,196,519 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $148,823,341,000 after acquiring an additional 3,166,275 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 2.0% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 179,001,751 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $88,714,256,000 after purchasing an additional 3,532,054 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth $50,493,678,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Microsoft by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $35,316,535,000 after acquiring an additional 11,600,470 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft beat Wall Street on top and bottom lines — EPS $4.14 and revenue $81.27B, showing continued cloud- and AI-driven revenue growth. Microsoft beats Wall Street expectations
• Positive Sentiment: Commercial backlog (RPO) surged — companies report a very large contracted backlog (reported at ~$625B), signaling strong demand for Azure and AI services over coming years. Demand backlog doubles to $625B
• Positive Sentiment: New customer wins for Azure AI capacity — reports that Perplexity signed a multi-year cloud deal with Microsoft (reported at ~$750M) reinforce Azure demand and ecosystem monetization. Perplexity signs $750M deal with Microsoft
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst reaction is mixed — many firms reaffirm “buy/overweight” but trimmed price targets; the Street remains broadly positive on the long-term AI thesis while re-pricing near-term expectations. Analysts slash forecasts after Q2
• Neutral Sentiment: Product/tech progress continues — Microsoft announced its Maia 200 AI accelerator and reiterated use of both in‑house and third‑party chips, a strategic signal for vertical integration even as it still buys GPUs. Microsoft launches Maia 200
• Negative Sentiment: Heavy AI capex and slower Azure growth spooked investors — Microsoft reported ~$37.5B in capex and guided to slightly lower sequential Azure growth, prompting a sharp selloff as traders question near-term returns on massive infrastructure spending. Why Microsoft tumbled 10%
• Negative Sentiment: Market impact and sentiment shock — the earnings reaction triggered sector-wide selling, software ETFs fell and MSFT’s market cap dropped materially, increasing volatility and re-rating near-term multiples. Software ETFs sink as MSFT stumbles
• Negative Sentiment: Investor litigation and scrutiny — law firms have announced investigations and outreach to investors, a sign of heightened legal/regulatory attention after the volatile reaction. Investor investigations announced

Microsoft Company 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).