Microsoft’s (MSFT) “Buy” Rating Reaffirmed at Royal Bank Of Canada

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by equities researchers at Royal Bank Of Canada in a research report issued on Wednesday,MarketScreener reports.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on MSFT. Daiwa Capital Markets dropped their price objective on Microsoft from $640.00 to $630.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $630.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday, October 28th. Arete Research boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $710.00 to $730.00 in a report on Monday, October 27th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $682.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $625.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $634.33.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $494.44 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Microsoft has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $555.45. The company has a fifty day moving average of $514.35 and a 200-day moving average of $498.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.67 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.07, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.02.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.65 by $0.48. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.47% and a net margin of 35.71%.The firm had revenue of $77.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $75.49 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.30 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Microsoft has set its Q2 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the firm’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 directly 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $504.78, for a total value of $75,315,699.90. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 790,852 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $399,206,272.56. This represents a 15.87% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Microsoft by 2.0% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 705,077,786 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $350,712,742,000 after purchasing an additional 13,691,572 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 299,196,519 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $148,823,341,000 after buying an additional 3,166,275 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 179,001,751 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $88,714,256,000 after buying an additional 3,532,054 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at $50,493,678,000. Finally, Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 564,387.1% during the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 90,549,369 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $45,040,162,000 after buying an additional 90,533,328 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.