Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Trading 1.6% Higher After Analyst Upgrade

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s stock price rose 1.6% during mid-day trading on Friday after President Capital raised their price target on the stock from $500.00 to $520.00. President Capital currently has a buy rating on the stock. Microsoft traded as high as $417.11 and last traded at $414.4090. Approximately 31,161,272 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 13% from the average daily volume of 35,870,355 shares. The stock had previously closed at $407.78.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on the company. New Street Research raised their price target on Microsoft from $670.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. BNP Paribas Exane reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $659.00 to $556.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 10th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $515.00 price objective (down from $630.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Phillip Securities raised Microsoft from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, February 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $556.15.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $409.52, for a total transaction of $5,045,695.92. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 137,933 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,486,322.16. This trade represents a 8.20% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director John W. Stanton bought 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were bought at an average price of $397.35 per share, for a total transaction of $1,986,750.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 83,905 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,339,651.75. This trade represents a 6.34% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q3 results beat estimates — Azure/cloud and AI metrics showed strong acceleration (helping justify Microsoft’s AI strategy and underpinning revenue and EPS beats). MSFT Earnings: Microsoft Posts Strong Q3 Results
• Positive Sentiment: U.S. Pentagon deals — Microsoft is among vendors cleared to deploy AI on classified networks, a strategic win for Azure in government/military contracts that supports long-term, high‑value demand. Pentagon inks deals with Nvidia, Microsoft and AWS
• Positive Sentiment: Product & distribution wins — Feature rollouts (Windows 11 Xbox Mode) and continued Copilot adoption (company cites millions of paid users) give tangible monetization paths for AI investments. Microsoft Stock Jumps on Windows 11 Xbox Mode Rollout
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst reactions are mixed — several firms trimmed or raised price targets; overall street sentiment remains bullish on AI/cloud but shows divergence on valuation and near-term returns. HSBC cuts Microsoft price target
• Neutral Sentiment: OpenAI partnership update — the amended agreement and evolving terms are being parsed by investors; some view it as favorable long term, others see near‑term execution/monetization questions. Microsoft and OpenAI Just Ended Their Exclusive Deal
• Negative Sentiment: Heavy capex worries — Microsoft’s massive AI/data‑center spending (nearly $190B guidance headlines) is sapping near‑term free cash flow and spooking some investors, which triggered post‑earnings selling pressure. Beat meets bill: MSFT stock slips on AI expenditure concerns
• Negative Sentiment: Macro/analyst alarm on cash burn — notes like Goldman’s warning on hyperscaler cloud cash burn and writeups highlighting valuation risk amplify volatility and risk‑off moves in MSFT. Microsoft, Amazon On Watch ― Goldman Sounds Alarm On 90% Cloud Cash Burn
• Negative Sentiment: Sharp post‑earnings volatility — coverage highlighted a large one‑day market cap drop and investor rotation into other AI/cloud names despite the beat, increasing short‑term downside risk. Microsoft stock wipes $124 billion in a day despite double earnings beat

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. WFA Asset Management Corp increased its holdings in Microsoft by 27.0% during the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $427,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. increased its holdings in Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,658,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 410.4% during the 3rd quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,144,000 after purchasing an additional 2,138 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. increased its holdings in Microsoft by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 2,374 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,000,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 23,097 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,735,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.6%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a current ratio of 1.39. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $395.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $448.37. The company has a market capitalization of $3.08 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.11.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.06 by $0.21. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.00% and a net margin of 39.34%.The company had revenue of $82.89 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $81.44 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.46 EPS. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 21st will be issued a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 21st. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 22.76%.

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).