Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Upgraded at Phillip Securities

Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) from a moderate buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Sunday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on MSFT. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $540.00 price objective on Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Redburn Partners set a $450.00 price target on Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Raymond James Financial dropped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $597.73.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $411.21 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $473.51 and its 200-day moving average price is $498.30. The company has a quick ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.05 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.08. Microsoft has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly 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. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.04% and a return on equity of 32.34%. The business had revenue of $81.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $80.28 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.23 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 19th will be paid a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.76%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the company’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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 129,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,577,620.48. This represents a 8.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $478.72, for a total value of $1,364,352.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 55,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,703,959.04. This represents a 4.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of 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 during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 299,196,519 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $148,823,341,000 after buying an additional 3,166,275 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 2.0% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 179,001,751 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $88,714,256,000 after acquiring an additional 3,532,054 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $50,493,678,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $35,316,535,000 after purchasing an additional 11,600,470 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Management moves to accelerate AI sales — Microsoft promoted commercial sales leaders to shorten the customer feedback loop and speed enterprise AI adoption, which may help convert AI investments into revenue faster. Microsoft promotes sales leaders as company pursues AI growth
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support and upgrades — Some brokers have reiterated buy/strong‑buy ratings and high price targets after the quarter, arguing the pullback presents a long‑term buying opportunity. That institutional backing can cushion further downside. Phillip Securities upgrade via Zacks
• Positive Sentiment: Product roadmap: Maia chip and AI cloud positioning — Microsoft is highlighting new AI hardware (Maia chip) and cloud AI capability expansion, reinforcing its competitive positioning in the AI stack. If deployments monetize, this supports longer‑term growth. Microsoft highlights Maia chip launch
• Neutral Sentiment: Hardware cycle signal — Market signals (e.g., SanDisk strength) point to an edge AI hardware refresh that benefits OEMs and infrastructure suppliers; Microsoft could benefit indirectly via Azure demand but the primary winners may be hardware vendors. The AI in a Box Trade: Hardware Is the Next Boom
• Neutral Sentiment: AI ecosystem deals highlight secular demand — Large partnerships in the cloud/AI space (e.g., Snowflake + OpenAI) validate ongoing enterprise AI spend, which is a positive structural tailwind for Microsoft’s cloud services even if near‑term economics are under pressure. Snowflake’s $200M Bet: Can The OpenAI Deal Fix the Slump?
• Negative Sentiment: Earnings reaction: growth vs. spending worries — Analysts and investors punished the stock after results: revenue/earnings beat but Azure growth cooled and management signaled heavy AI capex, raising concerns that spending will weigh on near‑term margins and guidance. That is the primary driver of today’s decline. Here’s Why Microsoft Fell After Earnings, Despite Beating Expectations
• Negative Sentiment: Geopolitical/regulatory risk in Europe — France and other European actors pushing native alternatives to Teams/Zoom underscore digital‑sovereignty headwinds that could slow enterprise adoption or create regional revenue pressure over time. France ditches Zoom and Teams for homegrown system
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst target trims and insider selling amplify caution — Some firms trimmed targets and public filings show material insider sales; combined with high volume selling, this reinforces near‑term downward pressure despite long‑term bull cases. Analysts Cut Microsoft (MSFT) Price Targets

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).