Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the forty-seven research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and forty-one have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $561.2045.
Several research analysts recently issued reports on MSFT shares. Evercore cut their target price on Microsoft from $580.00 to $510.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $575.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Rothschild & Co Redburn lowered their price target on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $400.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Finally, Raymond James Financial cut shares of Microsoft from a “market perform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th.
View Our Latest Stock Analysis on MSFT
Insiders Place Their Bets
Institutional Inflows and Outflows
Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at about $50,664,631,000. Auto Owners Insurance Co lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 56,160.8% in the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 60,116,384 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $29,073,486,000 after buying an additional 60,009,531 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the first quarter valued at approximately $18,733,827,000. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 500.0% during the third quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 59,543,261 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $30,840,432,000 after acquiring an additional 49,618,571 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 49,640.3% during the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 29,967,038 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $14,905,904,000 after acquiring an additional 29,906,791 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.
Microsoft News Roundup
Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:
- Positive Sentiment: Analysts and strategists turned more bullish after Build 2026, with multiple firms reiterating buy/overweight ratings and highlighting Microsoft’s expanding AI ecosystem, model-agnostic strategy, and enterprise governance advantages. Article Title
- Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s Build announcements showcased new homegrown AI models, hardware partnerships, and quantum milestones, which investors view as evidence the company can deepen its AI monetization beyond its OpenAI tie-up. Article Title
- Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s AI revenue run rate reportedly crossed $37 billion, underscoring that AI is already a meaningful contributor rather than just a future story. Article Title
- Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft is also drawing positive attention from Goldman Sachs portfolio positioning and broader “best AI stock” comparisons, keeping sentiment constructive. Article Title
- Negative Sentiment: Some traders and commentators say MSFT has been rejected at a key resistance level, suggesting near-term upside may be limited even after strong fundamentals. Article Title
- Negative Sentiment: There were also articles flagging tension between Microsoft and OpenAI, plus employee-survey concerns and insider selling, which can weigh on sentiment around execution and governance. Article Title
Microsoft Trading Up 0.2%
NASDAQ MSFT opened at $428.05 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $406.72 and its 200 day moving average is $432.18. Microsoft has a twelve month low of $356.28 and a twelve month high of $555.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The company has a market cap of $3.18 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.11.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.06 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $82.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $81.44 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.94% and a net margin of 39.34%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.46 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft will post 16.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Microsoft Dividend Announcement
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Investors 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 of this dividend is Thursday, May 21st. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 21.67%.
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).
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