Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Down 1.5% After Analyst Downgrade

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s share price was down 1.5% during mid-day trading on Friday 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 $515.10 and last traded at $517.81. Approximately 33,791,868 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 55% from the average daily volume of 21,868,383 shares. The stock had previously closed at $525.76.

MSFT has been the subject of several other reports. Redburn Partners set a $560.00 price objective on Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $637.00 to $645.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Wolfe Research set a $675.00 price objective on Microsoft and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $634.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $504.78, for a total transaction of $75,315,699.90. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 790,852 shares in the company, valued at $399,206,272.56. The trade was a 15.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the business’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 sale, the executive vice president owned 39,111 shares in the company, valued at $20,624,012.52. This represents a 11.03% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. WFA Asset Management Corp boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% during the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 410.4% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.5%

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 50-day moving average of $513.81 and a 200 day moving average of $486.83. The company has a market cap of $3.85 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.03.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced 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 company had revenue of $77.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $75.49 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.47% and a net margin of 35.71%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.30 EPS. Microsoft has set its Q2 2026 guidance at EPS. On average, analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be given a dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 25.89%.

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.