Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target Raised to $662.00

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price target raised by Sanford C. Bernstein from $660.00 to $662.00 in a report issued on Monday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the software giant’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Stifel Nicolaus raised Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $530.00 to $575.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 22nd. Tigress Financial increased their price objective on Microsoft from $680.00 to $690.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets started coverage on Microsoft in a research note on Monday, October 5th. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $525.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 15th. Finally, William Blair initiated coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, October 5th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. Forty-three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $592.15.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of MSFT opened at $532.95 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 1.22. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $507.45 and a 200-day simple moving average of $444.58. Microsoft has a 1-year low of $349.20 and a 1-year high of $553.72. The stock has a market cap of $3.96 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.10.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its 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. The firm had revenue of $90.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.98% and a net margin of 40.31%. Microsoft’s revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.65 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 19.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 19th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 20.27%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,810 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $496.48, for a total value of $2,388,068.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 42,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,188,276.96. This represents a 10.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Amy Hood sold 7,305 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $545.42, for a total value of $3,984,293.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 555,396 shares in the company, valued at $302,924,086.32. This trade represents a 1.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 150,314 shares of company stock worth $75,404,992 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Sullivan Wood Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 3.2% during the third quarter. Sullivan Wood Capital Management LLC now owns 647 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $332,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Narus Financial Partners LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 0.4% in the third quarter. Narus Financial Partners LLC now owns 4,487 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,301,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Box Hill Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 0.5% in the second quarter. Box Hill Private Wealth LLC now owns 4,272 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,593,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. PMG Family Office LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 1.0% in the third quarter. PMG Family Office LLC now owns 2,063 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,058,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Winebrenner Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 0.5% in the third quarter. Winebrenner Capital Management LLC now owns 4,426 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,270,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Expectations are building for another earnings beat, with demand for Azure cloud infrastructure, Microsoft 365 and Copilot supporting revenue and earnings growth. The key catalyst will be Microsoft’s October 28 report, where investors will look for accelerating Azure growth and evidence that AI investments are translating into monetization. Microsoft Earnings Preview
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft remains viewed favorably as a relatively cash-generative way to participate in the AI-cloud buildout. While Oracle’s cloud growth is faster, Microsoft’s stronger free cash flow, lower leverage and broad enterprise installed base may provide greater financial resilience as AI capital expenditures rise. Oracle Versus Microsoft
• Positive Sentiment: A new Boeing fleet-intelligence platform, Dataliner, is being built on Microsoft Azure AI Foundry. The partnership could add a recurring enterprise workload for Azure and demonstrate Microsoft’s ability to embed AI in industry-specific applications. Boeing and Microsoft Dataliner
• Positive Sentiment: Tavant’s Microsoft Fabric accelerator is now available through Microsoft Marketplace, potentially making it easier for businesses to deploy Fabric-based analytics and AI solutions across Azure. Tavant Fabric Accelerator
• Neutral Sentiment: GitHub Copilot is reportedly a major customer of Anthropic, highlighting demand for Microsoft’s AI developer tools but also exposing reliance on outside model providers and potential supplier concentration risk. Anthropic Revenue Concentration
• Negative Sentiment: Microsoft’s withdrawal as anchor tenant from a U.K. AI data-center project because of power-supply delays underscores a growing constraint: electricity and grid access may slow Azure’s AI capacity expansion and increase infrastructure costs. Microsoft Withdraws From UK AI Data Center Project
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that elevated prices for components could make Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox, Project Helix, less competitive or pressure demand. The gaming business is also undergoing restructuring, adding uncertainty beyond Azure and productivity software. Project Helix Pricing Concerns

Microsoft Company Profile

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a global technology company that develops software, cloud services, devices and digital platforms. Its products and services are used by consumers, businesses, governments and educational institutions worldwide.

The company’s principal offerings include the Windows operating system; Microsoft 365 productivity applications such as Word, Excel, Teams and Outlook; Azure cloud computing and infrastructure services; Dynamics business applications; and enterprise security solutions.