Microsoft’s (MSFT) Neutral Rating Reaffirmed at Rothschild & Co Redburn

Rothschild & Co Redburn reissued their neutral rating on shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) in a research note released on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has a $500.00 target price on the software giant’s stock, down from their previous target price of $560.00.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on MSFT. DZ Bank reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Wolfe Research set a $675.00 price target on shares of Microsoft and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 28th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $682.00 to $690.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $640.00 to $655.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $632.05.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $493.79 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $3.67 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.12, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.02. Microsoft has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $555.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The company has a 50 day moving average of $514.35 and a 200 day moving average of $498.33.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued 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. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.47% and a net margin of 35.71%.The business had revenue of $77.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $75.49 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.30 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Microsoft has set its Q2 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 790,852 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total transaction of $19,967,640.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 461,597 shares in the company, valued at approximately $239,402,668.08. The trade was a 7.70% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the 2nd quarter worth $50,493,678,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 564,387.1% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 90,549,369 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $45,040,162,000 after acquiring an additional 90,533,328 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the first quarter worth about $18,733,827,000. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 500.0% during the third quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 59,543,261 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $30,840,432,000 after purchasing an additional 49,618,571 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 49,640.3% during the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 29,967,038 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $14,905,904,000 after purchasing an additional 29,906,791 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.