Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Earns “Buy” Rating from Guggenheim

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by investment analysts at Guggenheim in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $586.00 target price on the software giant’s stock. Guggenheim’s price target indicates a potential upside of 25.76% from the company’s current price.

MSFT has been the topic of a number of other research reports. DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and set a $650.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. BNP Paribas Exane boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $630.00 to $632.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $625.00 to $610.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 12th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $640.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird assumed coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, November 14th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $600.00 price target for the company. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $618.18.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $465.95 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.40. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $478.69 and a 200 day moving average of $501.18. The firm has a market cap of $3.46 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.14, a PEG ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.07. Microsoft has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.65 by $0.48. The business had revenue of $77.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $75.49 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.45% and a net margin of 35.71%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.30 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the insider directly owned 461,597 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $239,402,668.08. This represents a 7.70% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $478.72, for a total value of $1,364,352.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 55,782 shares in the company, valued at $26,703,959.04. This trade represents a 4.86% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 54,100 shares of company stock valued at $27,598,872 over the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 51.3% during the second quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the period. Westend Capital Management LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 386.7% during the 2nd quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 3rd quarter worth $38,000. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the third quarter valued at about $49,000. Finally, University of Illinois Foundation acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the second quarter worth about $50,000. Hedge funds and other 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: New AI and robotics announcements — Microsoft unveiled robotics/agentic AI initiatives and pushed further into agentic AI for retail and frontline use, boosting enthusiasm that its product roadmap will translate into revenue from AI workloads. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Defense cloud contract — Microsoft won a sizable Air Force Cloud One task order (~$170M) that validates Azure’s position in government/defense spending and provides a tangible near‑term revenue win. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Investor reassessment of valuation — After recent weakness MSFT is seeing a rebound as analysts and market commentators highlight Microsoft’s relative growth, profitability and balance‑sheet strength versus software peers. That sentiment helped the stock move back up today. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst reaffirmations and mixed targets — Several firms (Jefferies, Guggenheim, UBS) kept Buy ratings even as many groups trimmed price targets; that leaves a mix of support and pressure in the tape heading into earnings. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple price‑target cuts and downgrades — A wave of target trims (Cantor Fitzgerald, Wells Fargo adjustments, Rothschild/Redburn cuts and other downgrades) is adding selling pressure and keeps expectations muted into the Jan. 28 earnings print. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Service outages and security/privacy headlines — Recent widespread Microsoft 365/Outlook outages disrupted customers and raised reliability concerns; separate reports about providing BitLocker recovery keys to the FBI introduce potential reputational/privacy scrutiny. Read More.

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).