Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Receives Buy Rating from DA Davidson

DA Davidson reissued their buy rating on shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) in a research note published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. DA Davidson currently has a $650.00 price objective on the software giant’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on MSFT. DZ Bank reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $660.00 to $635.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. HSBC raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $643.00 to $648.00 in a report on Monday, October 27th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $540.00 target price on shares of Microsoft and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $599.72.

Microsoft Trading Down 10.0%

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. Microsoft has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-week high of $555.45. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $476.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $500.21. The stock has a market cap of $3.22 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.07.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $80.28 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.23 earnings per share. Microsoft’s revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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 dividend payout ratio is currently 25.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $491.52, for a total transaction of $6,266,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 129,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,577,620.48. The trade was a 8.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 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 directly owned 461,597 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $239,402,668.08. This trade represents a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders 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

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 51.3% in the 2nd quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 386.7% in the second quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd bought a new position in Microsoft in the 3rd quarter valued at $38,000. Fairway Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 287.0% during the 4th quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth $44,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Stories 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

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).