Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Downgraded by Wall Street Zen to “Hold”

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

Several other brokerages have also weighed in on MSFT. Stifel Nicolaus set a $640.00 price objective on Microsoft in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Citigroup upped their target price on Microsoft from $682.00 to $690.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $650.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $630.00 to $632.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $631.03.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT opened at $485.92 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The business’s 50 day moving average is $499.78 and its 200-day moving average is $503.02. The stock has a market cap of $3.61 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.07. Microsoft has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.65 by $0.48. The firm had revenue of $77.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $75.49 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.45% and a net margin of 35.71%.The firm’s revenue was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.30 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Microsoft will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 19th will be paid a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 25.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $478.72, for a total value of $1,364,352.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 55,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,703,959.04. The trade was a 4.86% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total transaction of $19,967,640.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 461,597 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $239,402,668.08. This represents a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Alternative Investment Advisors LLC. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 9.4% in the third quarter. Alternative Investment Advisors LLC. now owns 2,520 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,305,000 after purchasing an additional 217 shares in the last quarter. Financial Symmetry Inc increased its holdings in Microsoft by 6.0% in the 3rd quarter. Financial Symmetry Inc now owns 2,378 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,232,000 after buying an additional 135 shares during the period. Keel Point LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Keel Point LLC now owns 57,722 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $29,897,000 after buying an additional 146 shares in the last quarter. Mirabella Financial Services LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 83.5% during the 3rd quarter. Mirabella Financial Services LLP now owns 66,598 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $34,427,000 after acquiring an additional 30,303 shares during the period. Finally, Farmers National Bank boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. Farmers National Bank now owns 50,678 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $26,249,000 after acquiring an additional 2,539 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and coverage point to improving AI economics — reports say Azure AI margins are positive and revenue is likely to beat estimates, supporting near-term earnings upside and giving investors confidence in cloud monetization. Azure AI margins article
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft pledged $17.5 billion of investment in AI and cloud infrastructure in India — a large, long-term growth initiative that should expand Azure adoption and enterprise spending in a major emerging market. India investment article
• Positive Sentiment: New enterprise partnerships (Cognizant, Infosys, TCS, Wipro) and a Cognizant-led push to scale Microsoft 365/GitHub Copilot & agentic AI deployments could accelerate commercial adoption and drive higher software and Azure consumption. Partnerships article
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft joined the U.S. “Genesis Mission” AI initiative alongside top AI firms — positioning MSFT to capture government and scientific AI spend and reinforcing strategic leadership in national AI programs. Genesis Mission article
• Positive Sentiment: Partner-channel and device news helped sentiment — LG’s reported backpedal on making Copilot mandatory drove a small positive knee-jerk move, easing concerns about forced integrations and signaling partner flexibility. LG Copilot article
• Neutral Sentiment: Market commentary frames MSFT as a durable AI/dividend play — pieces highlighting dividend/long-term strength keep buy-and-hold narratives alive but are unlikely to move price materially on their own. MarketBeat dividend article
• Neutral Sentiment: Consumer-product updates (Office 2024 upgrade) and legacy product refreshes support steady software sales, but are lower-impact versus cloud/AI developments. Office 2024 article
• Negative Sentiment: Jim Cramer warned that Microsoft “requires mass spending” to keep Azure competitive — a direct headline that reinforces investor worries about rising capex and margin pressure as MSFT scales data centers and AI infrastructure. Cramer spending article
• Negative Sentiment: Broader AI/tech jitters and commentary about “ballooning” capex have pressured the stock in recent weeks; that narrative could cap multiple expansion until evidence of durable margin recovery is clear. CapEx concerns article

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).