Microsoft’s (MSFT) Overweight Rating Reiterated at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler restated their overweight rating on shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage currently has a $650.00 target price on the software giant’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Microsoft to $625.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, October 27th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on Microsoft from $580.00 to $640.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, KeyCorp raised Microsoft from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $630.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $634.67.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.5%

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $517.81 on Thursday. Microsoft has a 12 month low of $344.79 and a 12 month high of $555.45. The stock has a market cap of $3.85 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.03. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $513.81 and its 200-day moving average price is $487.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $77.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $75.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.30 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. Microsoft has set its Q2 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be given a $0.91 dividend. 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 25.89%.

Insider Activity

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 790,852 shares in the company, valued at $399,206,272.56. This trade represents a 15.87% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 51.3% in the second quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Bulwark Capital Corp bought a new stake in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Westend Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 386.7% during the 2nd quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Bayforest Capital Ltd bought a new stake in Microsoft during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Finally, Newton One Investments LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 66.7% during the 1st quarter. Newton One Investments LLC now owns 75 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

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.