Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Trading Down 2.9% Following Analyst Downgrade

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares dropped 2.9% during trading on Thursday after Raymond James Financial lowered their price target on the stock from $630.00 to $600.00. Raymond James Financial currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Microsoft traded as low as $522.12 and last traded at $525.76. Approximately 40,198,232 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 84% from the average daily volume of 21,814,721 shares. The stock had previously closed at $541.55.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on MSFT. Melius Research lifted their price target on Microsoft from $595.00 to $625.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. KeyCorp raised Microsoft from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $630.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday. Evercore ISI set a $640.00 price objective on Microsoft in a research note on Thursday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $650.00 to $625.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $634.67.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $504.78, for a total value of $75,315,699.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 790,852 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $399,206,272.56. This trade represents a 15.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $527.32, for a total value of $2,557,502.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 39,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,624,012.52. This trade represents a 11.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Brady Martz Wealth Solutions LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 1.4% during the first quarter. Brady Martz Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 6,650 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,496,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. Real Talk Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Real Talk Capital LLC now owns 2,290 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $860,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 3.8% in the 2nd quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 922,524 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $457,119,000 after acquiring an additional 33,382 shares in the last quarter. Modern Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 39.3% in the 1st quarter. Modern Wealth Management LLC now owns 144,852 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $54,376,000 after acquiring an additional 40,860 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Well Done LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 8.9% in the 2nd quarter. Well Done LLC now owns 9,911 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,930,000 after acquiring an additional 814 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Down 2.9%

The firm has a market capitalization of $3.91 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.39, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $513.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $485.93.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.65 by $0.48. The business had revenue of $77.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $75.49 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.47% and a net margin of 35.71%.Microsoft’s revenue was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.30 EPS. Microsoft has set its Q2 2026 guidance at EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be issued 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, November 20th. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.34%.

About Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation develops and supports software, services, devices and solutions worldwide. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers office, exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft viva, and Microsoft 365 copilot; and office consumer services, such as Microsoft 365 consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other office services.