Cantor Fitzgerald Reaffirms Overweight Rating for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reissued by investment analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $590.00 price objective on the software giant’s stock. Cantor Fitzgerald’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 37.70% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other brokerages have also commented on MSFT. Arete Research lifted their target price on Microsoft from $710.00 to $730.00 in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $600.00 price target (down previously from $610.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday. Rothschild & Co Redburn lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $450.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $586.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Raymond James Financial decreased 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $601.00.

Microsoft Trading Down 11.0%

NASDAQ:MSFT traded down $53.16 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $428.47. 26,402,321 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 26,422,932. 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 firm has a market cap of $3.18 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.19, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.07. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $477.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $500.68. Microsoft has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-week high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly 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. The firm had revenue of $81.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $80.28 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.71% and a return on equity of 32.45%. The firm’s revenue was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.23 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total transaction of $19,967,640.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 461,597 shares in the company, valued at approximately $239,402,668.08. This trade represents a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $491.52, for a total value of $6,266,880.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 129,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $63,577,620.48. This trade represents a 8.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 54,100 shares of company stock valued at $27,598,872 over the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Norges Bank bought a new position in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth about $50,493,678,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 1st quarter worth approximately $18,733,827,000. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 500.0% in the third quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 59,543,261 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $30,840,432,000 after purchasing an additional 49,618,571 shares during the last quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 49,640.3% in 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 purchasing an additional 29,906,791 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 2.0% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 705,077,786 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $350,712,742,000 after purchasing an additional 13,691,572 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Beat on top and bottom lines — Microsoft delivered stronger-than-expected EPS and revenue, and Microsoft Cloud (Azure + related) topped $50B quarterly, validating demand for AI/cloud services. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: OpenAI/contract backlog lifts future revenue visibility — Microsoft reported a large contracted backlog and meaningful direct OpenAI-related gains, increasing booked future revenue (RPO/backlog). This supports medium-term Azure growth expectations. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Strategic AI investments and product moves — New Maia 200 AI chip, multiple data-center approvals and AI co‑innovation partnerships keep Microsoft positioned competitively in infrastructure and enterprise AI monetization. (Analysts at some shops reiterated/raised targets.) Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Mixed analyst reactions — Some firms trimmed near-term price targets or noted margin pressure, while others raised targets or kept Buy ratings; the net effect is divergent views that can widen intraday moves. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Macro and sector context — Tech peers (e.g., Meta) showed clearer near-term AI payoff in ad revenue, which accentuated the market’s comparison between AI spending vs. visible monetization. That relative performance is driving rotation within mega-cap tech. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Record capex and AI spending worried investors — Microsoft disclosed very large capital expenditures and data-center spending (reported >$37B capex), raising concerns that heavy near-term investment is outpacing visible revenue/margin improvement. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Slowing Azure growth vs. expectations — Azure/cloud growth decelerated vs. prior quarters (investors wanted acceleration given the spending surge), prompting sell-side and quant repricing and the after‑hours pullback. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Market punished stock despite beat — Coverage and commentary (Forbes, Bloomberg, CNBC summaries) emphasize that investors now demand clearer, near-term proof that AI investments will translate into faster revenue and margin expansion; that skepticism drove the immediate selloff. Read More.

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).