Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Earns Overweight Rating from Cantor Fitzgerald

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating restated by stock analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald in a report issued on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They presently have a $590.00 price objective on the software giant’s stock. Cantor Fitzgerald’s price objective points to a potential upside of 37.12% from the company’s current price.

Several other analysts have also commented on MSFT. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, January 5th. Wolfe Research decreased their price target on Microsoft from $675.00 to $625.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 15th. Daiwa Capital Markets lowered their price target on Microsoft from $640.00 to $630.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 7th. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $655.00 to $625.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $640.00 to $520.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $597.73.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT stock opened at $430.29 on Thursday. Microsoft has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $555.45. The firm has a market cap of $3.20 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.91, a PEG ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.39. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $475.83 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $499.71.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.86 by $0.28. The firm had revenue of $81.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $80.28 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.04% and a return on equity of 32.34%. Microsoft’s revenue was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.23 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $478.72, for a total transaction of $1,364,352.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 55,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,703,959.04. This trade represents a 4.86% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.52, for a total value of $6,266,880.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 129,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $63,577,620.48. The trade was a 8.97% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 54,100 shares of company stock valued at $27,598,872 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 51.3% in the second 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 in the last quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 386.7% during the 2nd quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. Bayforest Capital Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 3rd quarter valued at about $38,000. Fairway Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 287.0% in the 4th quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management acquired a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth about $44,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Trending Headlines about Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Large commercial deals and partnerships underpin continued demand — Microsoft landed a major cloud customer agreement (Perplexity, reported as a $750M deal), which demonstrates Azure can win sizable AI workloads and supports future revenue. Perplexity signs $750 million AI cloud deal with Microsoft
• Positive Sentiment: Long-term AI opportunity remains large — analysts and commentators note that potential liquidity events (e.g., an OpenAI IPO) and continued hyperscaler AI demand could boost infrastructure spending that benefits Microsoft’s cloud and services over time. Could A $1 Trillion OpenAI IPO Save The Day For Nvidia, Microsoft?
• Positive Sentiment: Backlog/RPO growth signals demand — Microsoft’s commercial remaining performance obligations (backlog) jumped materially year-over-year, implying multi-year contracted revenue tied to AI workloads. Microsoft demand backlog doubles to $625 billion
• Neutral Sentiment: Quarterly results were solid but mixed — MSFT beat on revenue and EPS (Q2 results) yet the company issued guidance and commentary that implied a modest moderation in Azure growth vs. prior quarter; the market is parsing growth vs. the cost profile. Microsoft Q2 earnings beat on top and bottom lines
• Neutral Sentiment: Options and sentiment flows amplify moves — unusually high call-option buying and heavy volume have increased intraday volatility and may accentuate both selloffs and snapbacks. Stock Of The Day: Is This The Bottom For Microsoft?
• Negative Sentiment: Investor backlash to capex and margin risk — the core negative: investors punished MSFT because AI capex jumped (reported ~$37.5B in the quarter) while Azure growth showed signs of slowing, raising doubts about near-term returns. That drove a sharp selloff and a big market-cap contraction. Microsoft tumbled 10% in a day and isn’t recovering premarket. Here’s why
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst cuts & guidance uncertainty — several firms trimmed price targets or flagged near-term Azure/margin risks, increasing downside pressure even as many maintain buy ratings longer term. These Analysts Slash Their Forecasts On Microsoft Following Q2 Results
• Negative Sentiment: Legal/investor scrutiny follows the shock drop — law firms have opened investigations and class-action notices have surfaced, which can keep sentiment fragile near-term. Microsoft Corporation Investigated on Behalf of Investors

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).