Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target Lowered to $625.00 at BMO Capital Markets

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price objective cut by BMO Capital Markets from $650.00 to $625.00 in a report released on Thursday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the software giant’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Mizuho set a $640.00 price objective on Microsoft in a report on Tuesday. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Microsoft from $600.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. DA Davidson upped their price target on Microsoft from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. TD Cowen upped their price target on Microsoft from $580.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on Microsoft from $680.00 to $682.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $634.67.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $525.76 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $3.91 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.03. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $513.60 and a 200-day simple moving average of $485.93. The company has a quick ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Microsoft has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-week high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.65 by $0.48. The business had revenue of $77.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $75.49 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.47% and a net margin of 35.71%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.30 EPS. Microsoft has set its Q2 2026 guidance at EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $504.78, for a total transaction of $75,315,699.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 790,852 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $399,206,272.56. This represents a 15.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $527.32, for a total value of $2,557,502.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 39,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,624,012.52. The trade was a 11.03% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 705,077,786 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $350,712,742,000 after purchasing an additional 13,691,572 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 299,196,519 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $148,823,341,000 after purchasing an additional 3,166,275 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter valued at approximately $50,493,678,000. Finally, Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 564,387.1% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 90,549,369 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $45,040,162,000 after purchasing an additional 90,533,328 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Microsoft Company Profile

Microsoft Corporation develops and supports software, services, devices and solutions worldwide. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers office, exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft viva, and Microsoft 365 copilot; and office consumer services, such as Microsoft 365 consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other office services.