Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock Price Up 3% After Analyst Upgrade

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) shot up 3% during trading on Friday after Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on the stock from $400.00 to $450.00. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a hold rating on the stock. Microsoft traded as high as $466.84 and last traded at $464.72. 60,494,661 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 61% from the average session volume of 37,679,688 shares. The stock had previously closed at $451.10.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on MSFT. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 price objective (up from $570.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $550.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday. Argus lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $620.00 to $510.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Evercore set a $528.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday. Forty-two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $558.64.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.34, for a total value of $519,111.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 46,003 shares in the company, valued at $18,922,874.02. The trade was a 2.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $402.84, for a total value of $1,812,780.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 47,468 shares in the company, valued at $19,122,009.12. This represents a 8.66% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 23,762 shares of company stock worth $10,508,361 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Cloud growth exceeded expectations. Microsoft reported quarterly revenue of $90.01 billion, up 17.7% year over year, and adjusted EPS of $4.74 versus the $4.24 consensus. Azure revenue grew 43%, helping annual Azure sales surpass $100 billion for the first time. Microsoft tops quarterly cloud growth estimates
• Positive Sentiment: AI demand is translating into contracted revenue. Microsoft’s commercial remaining performance obligation reached approximately $678 billion, an 84% year-over-year increase. Analysts viewed the backlog, Azure momentum and rising enterprise demand as evidence that AI infrastructure investments are producing tangible business growth. Microsoft backlog reaches $678 billion
• Positive Sentiment: Copilot adoption is accelerating. Microsoft 365 Copilot surpassed 30 million paid seats, supporting optimism that the company can monetize AI through a combination of software subscriptions and usage-based consumption. Microsoft Copilot surpasses 30 million paid seats
• Positive Sentiment: Capital-spending concerns eased. Microsoft held its annual AI capital-expenditure outlook broadly steady and indicated it can slow GPU purchases if demand weakens. Management also expects continued cash generation, which reassured investors concerned about the cost of data-center expansion. Microsoft holds AI capital spending forecast
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts remain broadly constructive, with several firms raising price targets or reiterating Buy and Outperform ratings. However, targets vary considerably, reflecting continued debate over valuation and the profitability of AI infrastructure.
• Negative Sentiment: Risks remain. Microsoft’s workforce declined by 5,000 employees, including a second consecutive annual decline in product R&D jobs. Separately, a reported cloud-security flaw and multiple securities-fraud lawsuit notices could weigh on sentiment, although neither appears to have offset the earnings-driven optimism. Reported Microsoft cloud security flaw

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 717,942,580 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $347,211,391,000 after purchasing an additional 15,955,898 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 306,150,608 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $148,060,557,000 after buying an additional 6,388,930 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 182,618,400 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $88,056,019,000 after acquiring an additional 1,911,142 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 121,220,561 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $58,624,690,000 after acquiring an additional 980,439 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at about $50,664,631,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Up 3.0%

The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The firm has a market cap of $3.45 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.13. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $397.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $405.54.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.07% and a net margin of 40.31%.The firm had revenue of $90.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $87.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.65 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.28 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be given a dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 20.27%.

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).