Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock Price Target Raised at Piper Sandler

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price target upped by research analysts at Piper Sandler from $550.00 to $610.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the software giant’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price target points to a potential upside of 19.85% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on MSFT. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $640.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Raymond James Financial cut shares of Microsoft from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 23rd. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $540.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, September 10th. Forty-three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $570.62.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.1%

Microsoft stock opened at $508.96 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.23. Microsoft has a fifty-two week low of $349.20 and a fifty-two week high of $553.72. The stock has a market cap of $3.78 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.34, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.11. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $482.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $427.75.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.50. The business had revenue of $90.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.98% and a net margin of 40.31%.The firm’s revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.65 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 19.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,810 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $496.48, for a total transaction of $2,388,068.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 42,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,188,276.96. This trade represents a 10.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $487.89, for a total value of $4,878,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 100,447 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $49,007,086.83. The trade was a 9.05% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 143,009 shares of company stock valued at $71,420,699 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Montgomery Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Frankly Finances LLC bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at about $35,000. Bard Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the second quarter valued at approximately $37,000. PMV Capital Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 2nd quarter worth $38,000. Finally, MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth about $59,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Enterprise AI momentum: Microsoft is bringing OpenAI’s autonomous “Dots” agents into its enterprise security and governance framework. The move could help Microsoft monetize AI workers across corporate systems while strengthening Azure and Microsoft 365 adoption. Microsoft Brings OpenAI’s Autonomous Dots AI Workers Into the Enterprise
• Positive Sentiment: Copilot and Azure growth remain key catalysts: Analysts point to Azure growth above 40%, rapidly expanding paid Copilot seats, a large commercial backlog and new usage-based AI revenue opportunities. Jefferies and other firms remain constructive, with bullish price targets as high as $625-$640. Enterprise AI Advances Power Microsoft
• Positive Sentiment: Fabric ecosystem is expanding: IntuigenceAI, Semarchy and ClickHouse announced new workloads and integrations for Microsoft Fabric and OneLake. These partnerships broaden Fabric’s data, analytics and industrial AI use cases, potentially driving additional cloud consumption. IntuigenceAI Announces General Availability on Microsoft Fabric
• Neutral Sentiment: Strong longer-term record: Coverage highlights Microsoft’s roughly 14-fold stock increase since Satya Nadella became CEO in 2014, driven by the shift toward enterprise cloud and Azure. Investors are now assessing whether that pace can continue as Microsoft commits hundreds of billions of dollars to AI infrastructure. Microsoft’s Growth Under Satya Nadella and AI Spending
• Negative Sentiment: AI economics and valuation are concerns: Analysts warn that heavy infrastructure spending may pressure cash flow and margins, while the recent rally has relied partly on a higher valuation multiple rather than upward earnings revisions.
• Negative Sentiment: OpenAI-related risks are increasing: Microsoft reportedly faces a cap on revenue sharing from OpenAI, while OpenAI is also introducing workplace tools that increasingly overlap with Microsoft Office. That could weaken the economics or strategic value of the partnership. Microsoft Has a Cap on OpenAI Revenue Sharing
• Negative Sentiment: Execution and trust risks remain: Recent layoffs, questions about Copilot adoption and reports that humans review some Copilot prompts could weigh on sentiment, even as Microsoft continues expanding its AI platform.

About Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is a global technology company that develops software, cloud services, devices, gaming products and business solutions. Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, the company is best known for the Windows operating system and Microsoft Office productivity software. Microsoft is headquartered in Redmond, Washington, and serves consumers, businesses, governments and educational institutions worldwide.

Microsoft’s productivity and business offerings include Microsoft 365 applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, along with collaboration tools including Teams.