Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft Lowers Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target to $575.00

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price target cut by investment analysts at Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft from $630.00 to $575.00 in a research note issued on Thursday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the software giant’s stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft’s price objective points to a potential upside of 33.63% from the company’s current price.

Several other research analysts have also issued reports on MSFT. DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $650.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $600.00 target price (down from $650.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, January 18th. HSBC upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $643.00 to $648.00 in a report on Monday, October 27th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $690.00 to $660.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $597.73.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $430.29 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The firm has a market cap of $3.20 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.07. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $475.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $499.71. Microsoft has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.86 by $0.28. The firm had revenue of $81.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $80.28 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.04% and a return on equity of 32.34%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.23 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the executive vice president owned 55,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,703,959.04. The trade was a 4.86% 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, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the insider owned 461,597 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $239,402,668.08. This trade represents a 7.70% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 51.3% in the second quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 386.7% in the second quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the third quarter valued at $38,000. Fairway Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 287.0% during the 4th quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth $44,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Microsoft News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Large commercial deals and partnerships underpin continued demand — Microsoft landed a major cloud customer agreement (Perplexity, reported as a $750M deal), which demonstrates Azure can win sizable AI workloads and supports future revenue. Perplexity signs $750 million AI cloud deal with Microsoft
• Positive Sentiment: Long-term AI opportunity remains large — analysts and commentators note that potential liquidity events (e.g., an OpenAI IPO) and continued hyperscaler AI demand could boost infrastructure spending that benefits Microsoft’s cloud and services over time. Could A $1 Trillion OpenAI IPO Save The Day For Nvidia, Microsoft?
• Positive Sentiment: Backlog/RPO growth signals demand — Microsoft’s commercial remaining performance obligations (backlog) jumped materially year-over-year, implying multi-year contracted revenue tied to AI workloads. Microsoft demand backlog doubles to $625 billion
• Neutral Sentiment: Quarterly results were solid but mixed — MSFT beat on revenue and EPS (Q2 results) yet the company issued guidance and commentary that implied a modest moderation in Azure growth vs. prior quarter; the market is parsing growth vs. the cost profile. Microsoft Q2 earnings beat on top and bottom lines
• Neutral Sentiment: Options and sentiment flows amplify moves — unusually high call-option buying and heavy volume have increased intraday volatility and may accentuate both selloffs and snapbacks. Stock Of The Day: Is This The Bottom For Microsoft?
• Negative Sentiment: Investor backlash to capex and margin risk — the core negative: investors punished MSFT because AI capex jumped (reported ~$37.5B in the quarter) while Azure growth showed signs of slowing, raising doubts about near-term returns. That drove a sharp selloff and a big market-cap contraction. Microsoft tumbled 10% in a day and isn’t recovering premarket. Here’s why
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst cuts & guidance uncertainty — several firms trimmed price targets or flagged near-term Azure/margin risks, increasing downside pressure even as many maintain buy ratings longer term. These Analysts Slash Their Forecasts On Microsoft Following Q2 Results
• Negative Sentiment: Legal/investor scrutiny follows the shock drop — law firms have opened investigations and class-action notices have surfaced, which can keep sentiment fragile near-term. Microsoft Corporation Investigated on Behalf of Investors

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).