TD Cowen Reiterates Buy Rating for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by equities researchers at TD Cowen in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $540.00 price target on the software giant’s stock. TD Cowen’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 21.02% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $647.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday. BNP Paribas Exane dropped their price target on Microsoft from $556.00 to $555.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 1st. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday. Barclays cut their price objective on Microsoft from $545.00 to $512.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, May 4th. Forty-two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $556.76.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT stock traded up $55.68 during trading on Thursday, hitting $446.22. The company had a trading volume of 58,732,050 shares, compared to its average volume of 37,205,906. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $396.43 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $405.74. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The company has a market cap of $3.31 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.13. Microsoft has a fifty-two week low of $349.20 and a fifty-two week high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.50. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.94% and a net margin of 39.34%.The firm had revenue of $90.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $87.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.65 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Microsoft will post 16.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other 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 transaction of $7,145,345.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 110,477 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,928,792.23. The trade was a 12.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.84, for a total transaction of $1,812,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 47,468 shares in the company, valued at $19,122,009.12. This represents a 8.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders sold 23,762 shares of company stock valued at $10,508,361. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Taylor Securities Services Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,616,000. Werba Rubin Papier Wealth Management lifted its stake in Microsoft by 15.7% in the 4th quarter. Werba Rubin Papier Wealth Management now owns 12,492 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,041,000 after purchasing an additional 1,698 shares during the last quarter. World Investment Advisors lifted its stake in Microsoft by 22.1% in the 4th quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 272,424 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $131,750,000 after purchasing an additional 49,371 shares during the last quarter. Centennial Wealth Advisory LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 25.3% in the first quarter. Centennial Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 8,648 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,201,000 after buying an additional 1,745 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Markel Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% during the first quarter. Markel Group Inc. now owns 537,630 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $199,014,000 after buying an additional 1,950 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strong earnings beat: Microsoft reported $4.74 in adjusted EPS versus the $4.24 consensus and $90.01 billion in revenue versus estimates of $87.62 billion. Revenue rose 17.7% year over year, while profit increased substantially. Microsoft Beats Wall Street Expectations, With 31% Jump in Profits
• Positive Sentiment: Azure momentum exceeded expectations: Azure revenue grew 43%, ahead of forecasts near 40%, and annual Azure revenue surpassed $100 billion for the first time. Intelligent Cloud revenue rose 32% to $39.3 billion, reinforcing Microsoft’s position as a leading beneficiary of enterprise AI demand. Microsoft Tops Quarterly Cloud Growth Estimates
• Positive Sentiment: AI monetization is improving: Microsoft 365 Copilot surpassed 30 million paid seats, while management described a shift toward usage-based “per seat plus consumption” revenue. Investors viewed the Azure and Copilot adoption figures as evidence that AI spending is beginning to generate returns. Microsoft Says AI Growth Will Depend on Usage
• Positive Sentiment: Spending concerns eased: Microsoft held its capital-expenditure outlook steady rather than following peers with another increase. Management also said GPU investment can be slowed if demand weakens, while the company expects healthy cash generation. Analysts responded with multiple price-target increases, including BMO’s move to $515 and Goldman Sachs’ move to $640. Microsoft Keeps Capex Forecast Unchanged
• Neutral Sentiment: The results helped lift broader technology and AI-related stocks, including clean-energy and power companies viewed as suppliers to data-center expansion. This supports sentiment toward Microsoft’s ecosystem but does not directly change Microsoft’s fundamentals. Plug Power Stock Jumps as Microsoft Earnings Spotlight AI Energy Demand
• Negative Sentiment: Risks remain: Microsoft faces a reported cloud-security flaw that could have exposed customers, a U.K. investigation into Microsoft 365 subscription marketing, and several shareholder securities lawsuits. These issues were overshadowed by the earnings beat but could create regulatory, legal, or reputational costs. Wiz Reports Potential Microsoft Cloud Flaw

About Microsoft

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).