Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target Cut to $575.00 by Analysts at Wedbush

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its target price trimmed by Wedbush from $625.00 to $575.00 in a research report released on Thursday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the software giant’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on MSFT. 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 report on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Microsoft from $630.00 to $615.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Wolfe Research lowered their price target on Microsoft from $675.00 to $625.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, December 15th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $600.00 price objective (down previously from $650.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday. Finally, Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $586.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. One investment 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $599.72.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT stock opened at $433.50 on Thursday. Microsoft has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $555.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.22 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.11, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.07. 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’s fifty day moving average is $476.67 and its two-hundred day moving average is $500.21.

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

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the firm’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 transaction 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 approximately $26,703,959.04. This trade represents a 4.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 directly owned 129,349 shares in the company, valued at $63,577,620.48. This represents a 8.97% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders 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

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. AlphaQuest LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 5.9% during the 2nd quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 342 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $170,000 after purchasing an additional 19 shares in the last quarter. BLVD Private Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.6% in the third quarter. BLVD Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,169 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,641,000 after buying an additional 19 shares during the period. Seek First Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.5% during the second quarter. Seek First Inc. now owns 1,358 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $675,000 after buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Level Financial Advisors raised its position in Microsoft by 0.8% during the second quarter. Level Financial Advisors now owns 2,680 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,333,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Finally, Red Mountain Financial LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 0.7% during the second quarter. Red Mountain Financial LLC now owns 2,761 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,373,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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

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).