Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target Cut to $630.00 by Analysts at Wells Fargo & Company

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price target lowered by Wells Fargo & Company from $665.00 to $630.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning, MarketBeat reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the software giant’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on MSFT. Arete Research increased their target price on Microsoft from $710.00 to $730.00 in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Cantor Fitzgerald set a $639.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Rothschild Redb lowered shares of Microsoft from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of Microsoft from $640.00 to $620.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Microsoft from $625.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $620.79.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT opened at $450.93 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $3.35 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.07, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.07. Microsoft has a 12 month low of $344.79 and a 12 month high of $555.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $479.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $501.40.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.65 by $0.48. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.45% and a net margin of 35.71%.The firm had revenue of $77.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $75.49 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.30 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 19th will be given a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 25.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $478.72, for a total transaction of $1,364,352.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 55,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,703,959.04. This represents a 4.86% 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 Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.52, for a total value of $6,266,880.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 129,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,577,620.48. This represents a 8.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Networth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth approximately $632,000. tru Independence LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 14.3% during the fourth quarter. tru Independence LLC now owns 15,392 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $7,444,000 after purchasing an additional 1,922 shares during the period. Argus Investors Counsel Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Argus Investors Counsel Inc. now owns 4,118 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,992,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares during the last quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 6,503 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,143,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Finally, City Holding Co. raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. City Holding Co. now owns 53,040 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $25,650,000 after purchasing an additional 430 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Microsoft News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: High-visibility marketing + product partnership — Microsoft announced a multi-year technology and sponsorship deal with the Mercedes‑AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, raising brand exposure for Azure and AI capabilities and signaling enterprise demand for cloud/AI partnerships. Mercedes reveal images, announce Microsoft deal
• Positive Sentiment: Government win — Microsoft landed a roughly $170M Air Force Cloud One task order for Azure through 2028, validating Azure’s government demand and recurring-revenue profile. Defense contracts reduce revenue uncertainty and support cloud backlog visibility. Air Force awards $170M Cloud One contract
• Positive Sentiment: Institutional conviction — Activist/hedge investors (Third Point’s Dan Loeb) increased stakes in Microsoft, signaling belief in MSFT’s AI/cloud growth despite 2025 volatility. That buying can support the stock ahead of earnings. Billionaire investor doubles down on AI, boosts stakes
• Positive Sentiment: Consumer/engagement catalyst — Xbox Developer_Direct presentation lifted sentiment around gaming/content growth and monetization opportunities for Microsoft’s consumer franchises. Xbox Developer_Direct 2026 coverage
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst views remain mixed but generally constructive — Several firms reiterated Buy/Overweight ratings (Jefferies, Guggenheim, Wells Fargo) even as price targets were trimmed in places, reflecting confidence in long‑term AI/cloud upside but acknowledgement of near‑term risks. Jefferies buy rating
• Negative Sentiment: Service outage hit — A Microsoft 365/Outlook outage disrupted access to email, files and meetings for thousands of users, creating immediate operational risk for enterprise customers and short‑term headline pressure on trust in cloud reliability. Microsoft 365 outage report
• Negative Sentiment: Margin and earnings concerns — Analysts and commentaries flagged cloud/AI margins as a key “tripwire” into the upcoming fiscal Q2 results; higher data‑center power and capacity costs could pressure near‑term margins if revenue mix doesn’t improve. That is weighing on the stock into earnings. Cloud margins are the tripwire ahead of FQ2
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst cuts/downgrades — A few shops trimmed price targets or signaled range‑bound outlooks (Rothschild, TD Cowen, others), which feeds short‑term selling pressure given MSFT’s recent pullback. Rothschild price target cut

Microsoft Company Profile

Microsoft Corporation is a global technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft develops, licenses and supports a broad range of software products, services and devices for consumers, enterprises and governments worldwide. Its operations span personal computing, productivity software, cloud infrastructure, enterprise applications, developer tools and gaming.

Microsoft’s product portfolio includes the Windows operating system and the Microsoft 365 suite of productivity and collaboration tools (Office apps, Outlook, Teams).