Microsoft’s (MSFT) “Market Outperform” Rating Reiterated at Citizens Jmp

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)‘s stock had its “market outperform” rating reissued by analysts at Citizens Jmp in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $550.00 price target on the software giant’s stock. Citizens Jmp’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 41.35% from the company’s current price.

MSFT has been the topic of a number of other research reports. New Street Research lowered their price target on Microsoft from $675.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $525.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $515.00 to $490.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Microsoft from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, July 6th. Forty-two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $554.73.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.9%

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $389.10 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $397.52 and a 200 day simple moving average of $406.99. Microsoft has a 52 week low of $349.20 and a 52 week high of $555.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.28. The company has a market cap of $2.89 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.13.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.06 by $0.21. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.34% and a return on equity of 31.94%. The firm had revenue of $82.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $81.44 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.46 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Microsoft will post 16.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $402.84, for a total value of $1,812,780.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 47,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,122,009.12. This represents a 8.66% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.99, for a total value of $7,145,345.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 110,477 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,928,792.23. This trade represents a 12.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 23,762 shares of company stock valued at $10,508,361 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 51.3% during the 2nd quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Bernzott Capital Advisors bought a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth $34,000. Frankly Finances LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth $35,000. Timmons Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at about $36,000. Finally, Fairway Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 287.0% during the fourth quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

More Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft unveiled MAI-Cyber-1-Flash, its first in-house cybersecurity AI model, along with Project Perception, an agentic platform designed to detect and respond to AI-driven cyberattacks in real time. The tools could strengthen Microsoft’s position in enterprise security and create additional demand for Azure and security products. Microsoft launches AI cybersecurity model and agentic defense platform
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support and healthy customer demand are providing a favorable backdrop ahead of earnings. Guggenheim reaffirmed a Buy rating with a $586 price target, while UBS said Azure and broader cloud demand appear healthy despite reducing its target. Why Is Microsoft Stock Gaining Monday?
• Neutral Sentiment: Wednesday’s results are the key near-term catalyst. Wall Street reportedly expects approximately $87.42 billion in revenue and $4.21 in earnings per share, with investors watching Azure growth, AI monetization, margins and whether demand is keeping pace with Microsoft’s infrastructure investments. Options markets imply a substantial post-earnings move. Options data reveals how MSFT stock may react to earnings
• Negative Sentiment: Several law firms announced a securities-fraud class action alleging Microsoft misled investors about Copilot and Azure, followed by a significant stock decline. The lead-plaintiff deadline is August 11, creating legal and reputational risk, although the allegations have not been proven. Microsoft securities fraud class action deadline
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that a 61% increase in capital spending may weigh on free cash flow and margins if Azure growth or AI revenue fails to accelerate enough to justify the investment. Microsoft plans $190 billion of capital spending

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).