Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Down 1.5% – Here’s What Happened

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) fell 1.5% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $378.65 and last traded at $384.93. 26,918,446 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 28% from the average session volume of 37,483,867 shares. The stock had previously closed at $390.99.

More Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s Josh Baer reiterated a Buy rating on Microsoft with a $650 price target, citing AI leadership, Azure and Microsoft 365 budget tailwinds, and underappreciated earnings power. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft is expanding its enterprise AI push, including a $2.5 billion customer deployment initiative and a reported effort to steer sales teams toward its own AI models, which could improve monetization and deepen customer adoption. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: 3M announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft to advance AI data center infrastructure, reinforcing Microsoft’s buildout in cloud and AI capacity. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft is overhauling its cybersecurity unit to focus more on AI-driven security products, a strategic shift that may help revenue growth but also includes layoffs and product rationalization. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Several analysts cut price targets ahead of earnings, but most kept Buy/Outperform ratings, signaling caution on near-term spending rather than a fundamental turn bearish. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft is facing ongoing securities class-action promotion and antitrust/browser scrutiny, while New York’s data-center moratorium adds uncertainty around AI infrastructure expansion. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: News about Microsoft training its sales force to prioritize in-house AI over OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic highlights intensifying competition in AI and may reflect pressure to defend market share. Article Title

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on MSFT shares. Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $675.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $620.00 to $570.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Raymond James Financial cut Microsoft from a “market perform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Dbs Bank cut their price target on Microsoft from $678.00 to $573.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. Forty-one equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $557.96.

Microsoft Stock Up 2.8%

The company has a market cap of $2.94 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.55, a P/E/G ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.27. The company’s 50-day moving average is $401.10 and its two-hundred day moving average is $412.04.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.06 by $0.21. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.34% and a return on equity of 31.94%. The company had revenue of $82.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $81.44 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.46 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.91 per share. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 21.67%.

Insider Activity

In other Microsoft news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the business’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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 110,477 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,928,792.23. The trade was a 12.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of the business’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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 47,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,122,009.12. This trade represents a 8.66% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 23,762 shares of company stock valued at $10,508,361 over the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 51.3% in the second quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Shepherd Kaplan Krochuk LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 4.9% during the 3rd quarter. Shepherd Kaplan Krochuk LLC now owns 431 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $223,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Better Money Decisions LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. Better Money Decisions LLC now owns 3,498 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,740,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares during the period. Endowment Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in Microsoft by 0.4% in the third quarter. Endowment Wealth Management Inc. now owns 5,251 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,720,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pollock Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.8% during the third quarter. Pollock Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,805 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,453,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional 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).