Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Lowered to Hold Rating by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on MSFT. Westpark Capital reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $581.00 to $639.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. KeyCorp raised Microsoft from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $630.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $540.00 to $637.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Microsoft from $600.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $612.54.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.7%

MSFT stock opened at $514.45 on Friday. Microsoft has a 52 week low of $344.79 and a 52 week high of $555.45. The company has a market capitalization of $3.82 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.04. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $511.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $459.59. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.35 by $0.30. The firm had revenue of $76.44 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $73.79 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.44% and a net margin of 36.15%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.95 earnings per share. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 20th will be paid a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 24.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $527.32, for a total value of $2,557,502.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 39,111 shares in the company, valued at $20,624,012.52. The trade was a 11.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $504.78, for a total value of $75,315,699.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 790,852 shares in the company, valued at $399,206,272.56. The trade was a 15.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. GatePass Capital LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 30.7% in the 2nd quarter. GatePass Capital LLC now owns 1,349 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $671,000 after buying an additional 317 shares during the last quarter. Caldwell Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth about $37,136,000. Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 11.8% in the second quarter. Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC now owns 53,744 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $27,326,000 after purchasing an additional 5,670 shares in the last quarter. Canal Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. Canal Capital Management LLC now owns 52,696 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $26,211,000 after buying an additional 1,567 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amiral Gestion raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 71.2% during the second quarter. Amiral Gestion now owns 62,170 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $30,924,000 after purchasing an additional 25,860 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

About Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation develops and supports software, services, devices and solutions worldwide. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers office, exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft viva, and Microsoft 365 copilot; and office consumer services, such as Microsoft 365 consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other office services.