Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Given New $580.00 Price Target at Evercore ISI

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price target reduced by Evercore ISI from $640.00 to $580.00 in a report issued on Thursday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Evercore ISI currently has an outperform rating on the software giant’s stock.

MSFT has been the subject of a number of other research reports. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and issued a $650.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, January 5th. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $650.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, November 19th. Finally, KeyCorp dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $599.72.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $433.50 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.40. The stock has a market cap 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 has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $555.45. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $476.67 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $500.21.

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

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.91 per share. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 19th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 25.89%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total value of $19,967,640.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 461,597 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $239,402,668.08. This represents a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,703,959.04. The trade was a 4.86% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872 over the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $50,493,678,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the first quarter worth $18,733,827,000. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its holdings in 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 valued at $30,840,432,000 after purchasing an additional 49,618,571 shares in the last quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 49,640.3% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 29,967,038 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $14,905,904,000 after acquiring an additional 29,906,791 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Microsoft by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 717,942,580 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $347,211,391,000 after purchasing an additional 15,955,898 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft News Summary

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

About Microsoft

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).