Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) had its target price lifted by investment analysts at Piper Sandler from $550.00 to $610.00 in a research report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “overweight” rating on the software giant’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 19.85% from the company’s previous close.
MSFT has been the topic of several other reports. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $545.00 to $512.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 30th. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $540.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $660.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, August 10th. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $530.00 to $575.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 22nd. Forty-three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $570.62.
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Microsoft Stock Down 0.1%
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.50. Microsoft had a net margin of 40.31% and a return on equity of 31.98%. The business had revenue of $90.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $87.62 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.65 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 19.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Insider Activity
In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 86,525 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $501.46, for a total transaction of $43,388,826.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 486,763 shares in the company, valued at approximately $244,092,173.98. This represents a 15.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $487.89, for a total transaction of $4,878,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 100,447 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $49,007,086.83. This trade represents a 9.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 143,009 shares of company stock worth $71,420,699. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
Institutional Inflows and Outflows
Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Microsoft by 2.9% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 315,653,206 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $117,744,959,000 after buying an additional 8,944,917 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth $27,338,370,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 64,375,360 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $24,013,297,000 after acquiring an additional 543,172 shares during the period. Auto Owners Insurance Co boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 56,160.8% during the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 60,116,384 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $29,073,486,000 after acquiring an additional 60,009,531 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter valued at about $18,306,443,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Key Headlines Impacting Microsoft
Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:
- Positive Sentiment: Enterprise AI momentum: Microsoft is bringing OpenAI’s autonomous “Dots” agents into its enterprise security and governance framework. The move could help Microsoft monetize AI workers across corporate systems while strengthening Azure and Microsoft 365 adoption. Microsoft Brings OpenAI’s Autonomous Dots AI Workers Into the Enterprise
- Positive Sentiment: Copilot and Azure growth remain key catalysts: Analysts point to Azure growth above 40%, rapidly expanding paid Copilot seats, a large commercial backlog and new usage-based AI revenue opportunities. Jefferies and other firms remain constructive, with bullish price targets as high as $625-$640. Enterprise AI Advances Power Microsoft
- Positive Sentiment: Fabric ecosystem is expanding: IntuigenceAI, Semarchy and ClickHouse announced new workloads and integrations for Microsoft Fabric and OneLake. These partnerships broaden Fabric’s data, analytics and industrial AI use cases, potentially driving additional cloud consumption. IntuigenceAI Announces General Availability on Microsoft Fabric
- Neutral Sentiment: Strong longer-term record: Coverage highlights Microsoft’s roughly 14-fold stock increase since Satya Nadella became CEO in 2014, driven by the shift toward enterprise cloud and Azure. Investors are now assessing whether that pace can continue as Microsoft commits hundreds of billions of dollars to AI infrastructure. Microsoft’s Growth Under Satya Nadella and AI Spending
- Negative Sentiment: AI economics and valuation are concerns: Analysts warn that heavy infrastructure spending may pressure cash flow and margins, while the recent rally has relied partly on a higher valuation multiple rather than upward earnings revisions.
- Negative Sentiment: OpenAI-related risks are increasing: Microsoft reportedly faces a cap on revenue sharing from OpenAI, while OpenAI is also introducing workplace tools that increasingly overlap with Microsoft Office. That could weaken the economics or strategic value of the partnership. Microsoft Has a Cap on OpenAI Revenue Sharing
- Negative Sentiment: Execution and trust risks remain: Recent layoffs, questions about Copilot adoption and reports that humans review some Copilot prompts could weigh on sentiment, even as Microsoft continues expanding its AI platform.
About Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is a global technology company that develops software, cloud services, devices, gaming products and business solutions. Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, the company is best known for the Windows operating system and Microsoft Office productivity software. Microsoft is headquartered in Redmond, Washington, and serves consumers, businesses, governments and educational institutions worldwide.
Microsoft’s productivity and business offerings include Microsoft 365 applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, along with collaboration tools including Teams.
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