Evercore ISI Cuts Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target to $580.00

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price target lowered by Evercore ISI from $640.00 to $580.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the software giant’s stock.

MSFT has been the subject of a number of other reports. Wolfe Research decreased their price target on Microsoft from $675.00 to $625.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 15th. Rothschild & Co Redburn decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $450.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. BNP Paribas Exane lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $632.00 to $659.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of Microsoft from $655.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $597.73.

Microsoft Price Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $430.29 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $475.83 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $499.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.20 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. Microsoft has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.86 by $0.28. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.34% and a net margin of 39.04%.The firm had revenue of $81.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $80.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.23 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 19th will be given a dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 19th. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 22.76%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $478.72, for a total transaction of $1,364,352.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 55,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,703,959.04. This trade represents a 4.86% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.52, for a total value of $6,266,880.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 129,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,577,620.48. This trade represents a 8.97% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 54,100 shares of company stock valued at $27,598,872. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its stake in Microsoft by 27.0% in the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $427,000 after buying an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the second quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,658,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 410.4% in the third quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,144,000 after acquiring an additional 2,138 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 2,374 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,000,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 23,097 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,735,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Large commercial deals and partnerships underpin continued demand — Microsoft landed a major cloud customer agreement (Perplexity, reported as a $750M deal), which demonstrates Azure can win sizable AI workloads and supports future revenue. Perplexity signs $750 million AI cloud deal with Microsoft
• Positive Sentiment: Long-term AI opportunity remains large — analysts and commentators note that potential liquidity events (e.g., an OpenAI IPO) and continued hyperscaler AI demand could boost infrastructure spending that benefits Microsoft’s cloud and services over time. Could A $1 Trillion OpenAI IPO Save The Day For Nvidia, Microsoft?
• Positive Sentiment: Backlog/RPO growth signals demand — Microsoft’s commercial remaining performance obligations (backlog) jumped materially year-over-year, implying multi-year contracted revenue tied to AI workloads. Microsoft demand backlog doubles to $625 billion
• Neutral Sentiment: Quarterly results were solid but mixed — MSFT beat on revenue and EPS (Q2 results) yet the company issued guidance and commentary that implied a modest moderation in Azure growth vs. prior quarter; the market is parsing growth vs. the cost profile. Microsoft Q2 earnings beat on top and bottom lines
• Neutral Sentiment: Options and sentiment flows amplify moves — unusually high call-option buying and heavy volume have increased intraday volatility and may accentuate both selloffs and snapbacks. Stock Of The Day: Is This The Bottom For Microsoft?
• Negative Sentiment: Investor backlash to capex and margin risk — the core negative: investors punished MSFT because AI capex jumped (reported ~$37.5B in the quarter) while Azure growth showed signs of slowing, raising doubts about near-term returns. That drove a sharp selloff and a big market-cap contraction. Microsoft tumbled 10% in a day and isn’t recovering premarket. Here’s why
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst cuts & guidance uncertainty — several firms trimmed price targets or flagged near-term Azure/margin risks, increasing downside pressure even as many maintain buy ratings longer term. These Analysts Slash Their Forecasts On Microsoft Following Q2 Results
• Negative Sentiment: Legal/investor scrutiny follows the shock drop — law firms have opened investigations and class-action notices have surfaced, which can keep sentiment fragile near-term. Microsoft Corporation Investigated on Behalf of Investors

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).