Stifel Nicolaus Increases Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target to $415.00

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price objective upped by equities researchers at Stifel Nicolaus from $392.00 to $415.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. The firm presently has a “hold” rating on the software giant’s stock. Stifel Nicolaus’ price objective would suggest a potential upside of 3.26% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on MSFT. DZ Bank reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $610.00 to $540.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $575.00 to $550.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Wolfe Research dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $625.00 to $530.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Wedbush dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $625.00 to $575.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $555.20.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock traded down $22.57 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $401.89. The company had a trading volume of 26,838,256 shares, compared to its average volume of 35,350,984. Microsoft has a 1 year low of $356.28 and a 1 year high of $555.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.38. The company has a market capitalization of $2.98 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.11. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $395.09 and its 200-day simple moving average is $448.65.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued 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 $4.04 by $0.23. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.04% and a return on equity of 32.34%. The business had revenue of $82.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $81.30 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.46 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Microsoft will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, Director John W. Stanton purchased 5,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were bought at an average price of $397.35 per share, with a total value of $1,986,750.00. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 83,905 shares in the company, valued at $33,339,651.75. This trade represents a 6.34% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $409.52, for a total transaction of $5,045,695.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 137,933 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,486,322.16. This trade represents a 8.20% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 717,942,580 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $347,211,391,000 after purchasing an additional 15,955,898 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 306,150,608 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $148,060,557,000 after purchasing an additional 6,388,930 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 182,618,400 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $88,056,019,000 after purchasing an additional 1,911,142 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 121,220,561 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $58,624,690,000 after purchasing an additional 980,439 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at $50,664,631,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q3 beat and cloud momentum — Microsoft reported an EPS beat and ~40% Azure growth; AI revenue and Copilot adoption were highlighted as drivers of durable top?line acceleration. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Copilot and AI monetization — Management said paid Copilot users and AI annual run?rate (~$37B) are growing, supporting long?term revenue levers beyond basic cloud. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst reactions mixed but largely bullish — Several firms reiterated Buy/Outperform and raised targets after the print, leaving longer?term analyst conviction intact. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Management stance on execution — CFO said supply?chain limits can be managed even as capex outlook rises, signaling the company expects to deliver capacity without derailing operations. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Record capex and cash?flow pressure — Investors reacted to a roughly 49% jump in capex and guidance near ~$190B for 2026; purchases of servers/data?center gear pulled down free cash flow and spooked short?term holders. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: OpenAI relationship reset increases competitive risk — OpenAI models are now available on rival clouds (Amazon Bedrock preview), reducing Microsoft’s prior cloud exclusivity upside. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: One?time charges and workforce moves — Microsoft flagged a ~$900M voluntary?retirement charge and said headcount will decline, adding near?term noise to results. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Large shareholder moves and regulatory risk — Some funds trimmed positions and EU regulators signaled closer scrutiny of cloud/AI services, which can amplify volatility. 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).