BNP Paribas Exane Increases Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target to $659.00

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price target hoisted by equities researchers at BNP Paribas Exane from $632.00 to $659.00 in a note issued to investors on Tuesday,MarketScreener reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the software giant’s stock. BNP Paribas Exane’s price objective points to a potential upside of 38.29% from the stock’s previous close.

MSFT has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, January 18th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $650.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Redburn Partners set a $450.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $586.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $612.58.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.3%

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT traded up $6.26 on Tuesday, reaching $476.54. 4,334,270 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 25,532,736. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.54 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.99, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.07. Microsoft has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $555.45. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The company has a 50 day moving average of $477.94 and a 200 day moving average of $500.97.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.65 by $0.48. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.71% and a return on equity of 32.45%. The company had revenue of $77.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $75.49 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.30 earnings per share. Microsoft’s revenue was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.52, for a total value of $6,266,880.00. Following the completion of 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 $239,402,668.08. The trade was a 7.70% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 54,100 shares of company stock valued at $27,598,872 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Wealth Enhancement Trust Services Inc. bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,185,000. CenterStar Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 121.9% during the fourth quarter. CenterStar Asset Management LLC now owns 1,740 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $842,000 after acquiring an additional 956 shares during the last quarter. Pekao Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych S.A. bought a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at about $7,855,000. Tranquilli Financial Advisor LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Tranquilli Financial Advisor LLC now owns 3,426 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,657,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the period. Finally, Hobart Private Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 41.4% in the fourth quarter. Hobart Private Capital LLC now owns 13,640 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,597,000 after purchasing an additional 3,992 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

More Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Company rolled out its second‑generation AI accelerator, the Maia 200, which Microsoft says boosts inference performance per dollar (~30% better) and reduces energy costs — a direct lever to improve Azure/Copilot margins as usage scales. This lowers long‑term COGS and reduces reliance on third‑party GPUs. Microsoft’s Maia 200: The Profit Engine AI Needs
• Positive Sentiment: Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin approved plans for 15 additional data centers (~$13B buildout). That expands Microsoft’s capacity footprint, supports multi‑year revenue from cloud/AI workloads, and signals secured sites for Maia 200 deployment. Microsoft’s plans for 15 more data centers win approval
• Positive Sentiment: Broker and analyst commentary remains generally constructive ahead of earnings, citing strong Azure and Copilot momentum and expecting robust Q2 results — support for upside if management confirms durable demand and margin progress. Analyst: Microsoft stock ‘still in the lead’
• Neutral Sentiment: Earnings previews highlight the key driver for near‑term stock moves: revenue/AI unit economics and forward guidance. Street models expect ~\$80B revenue, but the market will focus on capex guidance and inference‑cost trajectory rather than just reported revenue. Microsoft Q2 results: Can Azure growth match rising AI spending
• Negative Sentiment: Valuation and AI spending remain sources of investor concern: some analysts have trimmed targets and market commentary warns that rising capex could pressure near‑term margins if efficiencies aren’t realized. Price target cut reported
• Negative Sentiment: Technical indicators and a recent note highlighting a bearish setup raise the risk of further downside into earnings if guidance disappoints — technical traders may amplify moves. MSFT Earnings Preview – Bearish Technical Setup & Key Levels
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/legal headlines (e.g., litigation around AI hiring tools used by vendors) and broad scrutiny of Big Tech’s AI spend add noise and could influence sentiment if amplified. Class action vs. AI hiring tool

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).