Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock Price Up 3.3% – Here’s Why

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares were up 3.3% on Friday . The stock traded as high as $471.10 and last traded at $465.95. Approximately 37,567,406 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 41% from the average daily volume of 26,697,861 shares. The stock had previously closed at $451.14.

Microsoft News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: New AI and robotics announcements — Microsoft unveiled robotics/agentic AI initiatives and pushed further into agentic AI for retail and frontline use, boosting enthusiasm that its product roadmap will translate into revenue from AI workloads. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Defense cloud contract — Microsoft won a sizable Air Force Cloud One task order (~$170M) that validates Azure’s position in government/defense spending and provides a tangible near‑term revenue win. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Investor reassessment of valuation — After recent weakness MSFT is seeing a rebound as analysts and market commentators highlight Microsoft’s relative growth, profitability and balance‑sheet strength versus software peers. That sentiment helped the stock move back up today. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst reaffirmations and mixed targets — Several firms (Jefferies, Guggenheim, UBS) kept Buy ratings even as many groups trimmed price targets; that leaves a mix of support and pressure in the tape heading into earnings. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple price‑target cuts and downgrades — A wave of target trims (Cantor Fitzgerald, Wells Fargo adjustments, Rothschild/Redburn cuts and other downgrades) is adding selling pressure and keeps expectations muted into the Jan. 28 earnings print. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Service outages and security/privacy headlines — Recent widespread Microsoft 365/Outlook outages disrupted customers and raised reliability concerns; separate reports about providing BitLocker recovery keys to the FBI introduce potential reputational/privacy scrutiny. Read More.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Microsoft to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 12th. Barclays lowered their price target on Microsoft from $625.00 to $610.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 12th. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $640.00 to $620.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $650.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird began coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, November 14th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $600.00 price target for the company. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $618.18.

Microsoft Trading Up 3.3%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $478.69 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $501.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.46 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.14, a PEG ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.07.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.65 by $0.48. The company had revenue of $77.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $75.49 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.71% and a return on equity of 32.45%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.30 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business 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 dividend of $0.91 per share. 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 payout ratio is currently 25.89%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total value of $19,967,640.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 461,597 shares in the company, valued at approximately $239,402,668.08. The trade was a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 54,100 shares of company stock valued at $27,598,872 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. TFC Financial Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. TFC Financial Management Inc. now owns 16,426 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $7,944,000 after buying an additional 192 shares in the last quarter. Bingham Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth about $8,227,000. Sunpointe LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Sunpointe LLC now owns 16,443 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $7,952,000 after acquiring an additional 825 shares in the last quarter. G2 Capital Management LLC OH boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. G2 Capital Management LLC OH now owns 3,329 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,610,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Warburton Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Warburton Capital Management LLC now owns 5,062 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,448,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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).