Microsoft’s (MSFT) “Buy” Rating Reaffirmed at Royal Bank Of Canada

Royal Bank Of Canada restated their buy rating on shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) in a research report report published on Friday morning,MarketScreener Latest Ratings reports. The firm currently has a $640.00 target price on the software giant’s stock.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $581.00 to $639.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $585.00 to $640.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Arete increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $700.00 to $710.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. Finally, Westpark Capital reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $617.63.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $517.35 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $512.83 and its 200-day moving average price is $466.63. The company has a market cap of $3.85 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.03. 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 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 1.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.35 by $0.30. The company had revenue of $76.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $73.79 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.15% and a return on equity of 32.44%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.95 earnings per share. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 20th will be given a dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 20th. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.34%.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $527.32, for a total transaction of $2,557,502.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 39,111 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,624,012.52. This trade represents a 11.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $504.78, for a total transaction of $75,315,699.90. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 790,852 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $399,206,272.56. The trade was a 15.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Microsoft during the second quarter worth about $50,493,678,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 564,387.1% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 90,549,369 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $45,040,162,000 after buying an additional 90,533,328 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Microsoft during the first quarter worth about $18,733,827,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 40,290.4% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 46,695,303 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $17,528,950,000 after buying an additional 46,579,693 shares during the period. Finally, Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 49,640.3% during the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 29,967,038 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $14,905,904,000 after buying an additional 29,906,791 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Company Profile

Microsoft Corporation develops and supports software, services, devices and solutions worldwide. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers office, exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft viva, and Microsoft 365 copilot; and office consumer services, such as Microsoft 365 consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other office services.