Daiwa Capital Markets Has Lowered Expectations for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock Price

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price target lowered by stock analysts at Daiwa Capital Markets from $630.00 to $600.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday,MarketScreener reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the software giant’s stock. Daiwa Capital Markets’ target price indicates a potential upside of 52.41% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Rothschild & Co Redburn lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $450.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. New Street Research lifted their price target on Microsoft from $670.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $640.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. BNP Paribas Exane raised their target price on Microsoft from $632.00 to $659.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, KeyCorp reduced their target price on Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $593.28.

Microsoft Trading Down 5.0%

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $393.67 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.92 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.62, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.08. Microsoft has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-week high of $555.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a current ratio of 1.39. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $470.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $496.99.

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

Insider Activity at Microsoft

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 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 trade represents a 4.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.52, for a total transaction of $6,266,880.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer 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 ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. IRON Financial LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 23.2% during the 3rd quarter. IRON Financial LLC now owns 6,510 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,372,000 after buying an additional 1,225 shares during the period. Wellington Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter worth $9,941,000. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.6% during the second quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 94,120 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $46,816,000 after acquiring an additional 2,373 shares during the period. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 3.8% in the second quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 922,524 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $457,119,000 after acquiring an additional 33,382 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Weaver Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 14.0% in the third quarter. Weaver Capital Management LLC now owns 18,340 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,499,000 after purchasing an additional 2,247 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Microsoft News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft beat Q2 expectations on Jan. 28 and reported a record cloud quarter, supporting the long-term growth case for Azure and Copilot adoption improvements. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Certain analysts remain bullish: TD Cowen and Piper Sandler reiterated Buy/Overweight views and high price targets (~$600+), arguing Microsoft remains a top AI hyperscaler play despite near-term noise. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft is partnering with the UK government on deepfake detection — a credibility/PR positive but limited near-term revenue impact. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Management changes in security leadership and commercial reorganization indicate ongoing operational adjustments; these are execution items investors should monitor. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Stifel issued a rare downgrade to Hold, flagging slower Azure growth, rising AI infrastructure and inference costs, and tougher cloud competition (Google, Anthropic). That downgrade catalyzed much of today’s selling. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Analysts and media highlight OpenAI-related liabilities, Copilot adoption slippage and product usability problems — these raise questions about near-term monetization of AI investments. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Price-target trims and broad software-sector rotation amplified the move; multiple outlets cited analyst cuts and hedge-fund positioning as technical selling pressure. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Market worry over AI capex and margin pressure: some notes point to heavy near-term GPU/inference spending that could compress margins before revenue from AI products scales. Read More.

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).