Wells Fargo & Company Has Lowered Expectations for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock Price

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price objective dropped by Wells Fargo & Company from $650.00 to $625.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “overweight” rating on the software giant’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price objective indicates a potential upside of 55.82% from the stock’s previous close.

MSFT has been the topic of a number of other research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Microsoft from $540.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $515.00 price objective (down from $630.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $575.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $556.00 to $555.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 1st. Forty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $557.96.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT stock opened at $401.10 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $400.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $411.43. The stock has a market cap of $2.98 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.13. Microsoft has a one year low of $349.20 and a one year high of $555.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.27.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.06 by $0.21. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.34% and a return on equity of 31.94%. The firm had revenue of $82.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $81.44 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.46 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Microsoft will post 16.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $460.99, for a total transaction of $7,145,345.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 110,477 shares in the company, valued at $50,928,792.23. This represents a 12.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.84, for a total transaction of $1,812,780.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 47,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,122,009.12. The trade was a 8.66% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 23,762 shares of company stock valued at $10,508,361. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC increased 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 buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Bernzott Capital Advisors purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Frankly Finances LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft in the second quarter valued at $35,000. Timmons Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at $36,000. Finally, Fairway Wealth LLC increased its position in 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 period. 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: Analysts remain broadly bullish ahead of Microsoft’s July 29 earnings report, with several firms still rating the stock Buy/Outperform even after trimming price targets. Microsoft Earnings Preview: Copilot, AI Spending and Margins Are in Focus
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft is being viewed as a top AI vendor, and Citi highlighted it as one of the leading players in the space, reinforcing the company’s AI leadership narrative. Citi Finds Microsoft (MSFT) as One of the Top AI Vendors
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft announced a strategic partnership with 3M to advance AI data center infrastructure and enterprise transformation, a sign of continued demand for its cloud and AI ecosystem. 3M and Microsoft announce strategic partnership to advance AI data center infrastructure and enterprise transformation
• Positive Sentiment: CEO Satya Nadella’s push to emphasize Microsoft’s in-house AI models and lower-cost enterprise offerings suggests a more aggressive competitive strategy versus OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. Microsoft is reportedly training salespeople to talk down OpenAI and Anthropic

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).