Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Earns “Buy” Rating from UBS Group

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by stock analysts at UBS Group in a research note issued on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They presently have a $600.00 price target on the software giant’s stock, down from their previous price target of $650.00. UBS Group’s target price indicates a potential upside of 28.77% from the stock’s current price.

MSFT has been the subject of a number of other reports. Wolfe Research dropped their price target on Microsoft from $675.00 to $625.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 15th. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $655.00 to $625.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $640.00 to $620.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Stifel Nicolaus set a $640.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $640.00 to $630.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $618.18.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT opened at $465.95 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.46 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.14, a PEG ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a fifty day moving average of $478.69 and a 200 day moving average of $501.21. Microsoft has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $555.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.40.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.65 by $0.48. The business had revenue of $77.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $75.49 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.71% and a return on equity of 32.45%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.30 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the executive vice president 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total value of $19,967,640.00. Following the completion of 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 ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 51.3% during the second quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC raised its position 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 in the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 3rd quarter worth $38,000. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 3rd quarter worth $49,000. Finally, University of Illinois Foundation bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth $50,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

More Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: New AI and robotics announcements — Microsoft unveiled robotics/agentic AI initiatives and pushed further into agentic AI for retail and frontline use, boosting enthusiasm that its product roadmap will translate into revenue from AI workloads. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Defense cloud contract — Microsoft won a sizable Air Force Cloud One task order (~$170M) that validates Azure’s position in government/defense spending and provides a tangible near‑term revenue win. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Investor reassessment of valuation — After recent weakness MSFT is seeing a rebound as analysts and market commentators highlight Microsoft’s relative growth, profitability and balance‑sheet strength versus software peers. That sentiment helped the stock move back up today. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst reaffirmations and mixed targets — Several firms (Jefferies, Guggenheim, UBS) kept Buy ratings even as many groups trimmed price targets; that leaves a mix of support and pressure in the tape heading into earnings. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple price‑target cuts and downgrades — A wave of target trims (Cantor Fitzgerald, Wells Fargo adjustments, Rothschild/Redburn cuts and other downgrades) is adding selling pressure and keeps expectations muted into the Jan. 28 earnings print. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Service outages and security/privacy headlines — Recent widespread Microsoft 365/Outlook outages disrupted customers and raised reliability concerns; separate reports about providing BitLocker recovery keys to the FBI introduce potential reputational/privacy scrutiny. Read More.

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).