BMO Capital Markets Cuts Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target to $625.00

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price objective reduced by BMO Capital Markets from $650.00 to $625.00 in a research note released on Thursday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the software giant’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on MSFT. Westpark Capital reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $585.00 to $640.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Wolfe Research set a $675.00 price target on shares of Microsoft and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $634.67.

Microsoft Stock Down 1.5%

MSFT stock opened at $517.81 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $513.81 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $487.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 1.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.85 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.83, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.03. Microsoft has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.65 by $0.48. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.47% and a net margin of 35.71%.The company had revenue of $77.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $75.49 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.30 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Microsoft has set its Q2 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 20th will be given a dividend of $0.91 per share. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $527.32, for a total transaction of $2,557,502.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 39,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,624,012.52. This trade represents a 11.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Brady Martz Wealth Solutions LLC grew 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 during the last quarter. Real Talk Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Real Talk Capital LLC now owns 2,290 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $860,000 after buying an additional 37 shares during the period. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG grew its stake in Microsoft by 3.8% in the 2nd quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 922,524 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $457,119,000 after buying an additional 33,382 shares during the last quarter. Modern Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 39.3% in the 1st quarter. Modern Wealth Management LLC now owns 144,852 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $54,376,000 after buying an additional 40,860 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Well Done LLC raised its holdings in 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 during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.