Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Given “Buy” Rating at The Goldman Sachs Group

The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated their buy rating on shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) in a report released on Thursday morning, MarketBeat reports. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a $600.00 target price on the software giant’s stock, down from their prior target price of $655.00.

MSFT has been the subject of a number of other reports. Redburn Partners set a $450.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $640.00 to $520.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Daiwa Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $640.00 to $630.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 7th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Microsoft from $625.00 to $575.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Evercore ISI cut their price objective on Microsoft from $640.00 to $580.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $599.72.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT opened at $433.50 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $476.67 and its two-hundred day moving average is $500.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.39. Microsoft has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $555.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.22 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.07.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.86 by $0.28. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.04% and a return on equity of 33.48%. The company had revenue of $81.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $80.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.23 earnings per share. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, 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 $63,577,620.48. This trade represents a 8.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $478.72, for a total value of $1,364,352.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 55,782 shares in the company, valued at $26,703,959.04. This represents a 4.86% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Koa Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 36.1% in the fourth quarter. Koa Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,346 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,102,000 after acquiring an additional 1,152 shares in the last quarter. Eagle Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth $9,958,000. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 170,254 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $82,338,000 after purchasing an additional 5,065 shares in the last quarter. West Bancorporation Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. West Bancorporation Inc. now owns 9,248 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,473,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aspen Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Aspen Capital Management LLC now owns 8,128 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,931,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q2 beat on top and bottom lines — EPS $4.14 and revenue $81.27B, with Microsoft Cloud topping $50B and Azure still growing robustly—this underpins the long‑term growth thesis. Microsoft beats Wall Street expectations
• Positive Sentiment: OpenAI and AI revenue contribution is material — the company reported meaningful gains tied to OpenAI that help justify the AI investment narrative. Microsoft gained $7.6 billion from OpenAI
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft unveiled its Maia 200 AI accelerator — a strategic product for in‑house AI capability, but commercial impact/timing is uncertain and longer term. Microsoft launches Maia 200 AI accelerator
• Negative Sentiment: Record AI capex spooked investors — Q2 capex (~$37.5B) rose sharply and management signaled continued heavy spending; markets worried about the timing and ROI of that investment. Microsoft sheds $430bn in market value as AI spending spooks investors
• Negative Sentiment: Investor reaction: a historic one‑day market‑cap wipe and broad tech weakness as traders rotated into names (like Meta) that showed clearer near‑term payoff from AI spend. Microsoft lost $357 billion in market cap as stock plunged
• Negative Sentiment: Analysts trimmed targets and flagged near‑term risk — several firms cut price targets or adjusted estimates citing slower Azure growth and heavier capex, increasing near‑term downside risk. These analysts slash their forecasts on Microsoft

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).