Truist Financial Reaffirms Buy Rating for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by stock analysts at Truist Financial in a research note issued on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. They presently have a $575.00 price objective on the software giant’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $675.00. Truist Financial’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 43.07% from the company’s current price.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on MSFT. Barclays set a $545.00 price target on Microsoft in a research note on Thursday. BNP Paribas Exane lowered their price target on Microsoft from $659.00 to $556.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their price target on Microsoft to $502.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Daiwa Securities Group lowered their price target on Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, Bank of America began coverage on Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, March 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $500.00 price target on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $555.20.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT traded down $22.57 during trading on Thursday, hitting $401.89. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 26,838,256 shares, compared to its average volume of 35,350,984. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. Microsoft has a twelve month low of $356.28 and a twelve month high of $555.45. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $395.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $448.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.11.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.04 by $0.23. The company had revenue of $82.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $81.30 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.34% and a net margin of 39.04%.Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.46 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $409.52, for a total transaction of $5,045,695.92. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 137,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $56,486,322.16. The trade was a 8.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director John W. Stanton acquired 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $397.35 per share, for a total transaction of $1,986,750.00. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 83,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,339,651.75. The trade was a 6.34% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp raised its position in Microsoft by 27.0% in the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $427,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the period. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. raised its position in Microsoft by 0.3% in the second quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,658,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 410.4% in the third quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,144,000 after purchasing an additional 2,138 shares during the period. Wealth Group Ltd. raised its position in Microsoft by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 2,374 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,000,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Capital Management LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 23,097 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,735,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q3 beat and cloud momentum — Microsoft reported an EPS beat and ~40% Azure growth; AI revenue and Copilot adoption were highlighted as drivers of durable top‑line acceleration. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Copilot and AI monetization — Management said paid Copilot users and AI annual run‑rate (~$37B) are growing, supporting long‑term revenue levers beyond basic cloud. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst reactions mixed but largely bullish — Several firms reiterated Buy/Outperform and raised targets after the print, leaving longer‑term analyst conviction intact. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Management stance on execution — CFO said supply‑chain limits can be managed even as capex outlook rises, signaling the company expects to deliver capacity without derailing operations. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Record capex and cash‑flow pressure — Investors reacted to a roughly 49% jump in capex and guidance near ~$190B for 2026; purchases of servers/data‑center gear pulled down free cash flow and spooked short‑term holders. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: OpenAI relationship reset increases competitive risk — OpenAI models are now available on rival clouds (Amazon Bedrock preview), reducing Microsoft’s prior cloud exclusivity upside. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: One‑time charges and workforce moves — Microsoft flagged a ~$900M voluntary‑retirement charge and said headcount will decline, adding near‑term noise to results. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Large shareholder moves and regulatory risk — Some funds trimmed positions and EU regulators signaled closer scrutiny of cloud/AI services, which can amplify volatility. Read More.

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).