Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

Posters from Microsoft Garage science fairs and hack events, many funded by the Microsoft groups that hosted them, as seen in 2016. (Photo courtesy of Quinn Hawkins) I saw the news via GeekWire that after 17 years, the Microsoft Garage, which I co-founded, is coming to an end.

In software, 17 years is a very, very long time. I’m proud of how long it lasted.

The funny thing about the Garage is that it never should have existed. When we started it, Microsoft already had bigger, better-funded grassroots innovation programs. And none of us had any idea what we were doing. We’d never built anything like it.

And yet the Garage outlasted all of them. And grew bigger than any of them.

Some of that was luck. But I’d like to believe some of it was smart choices. Here are four that I think mattered, in hopes they help someone else with a similar opportunity.

In case you don’t want to read the whole thing, here’s the short version:

Doers, not talkers. Make it a potluck. Don’t worry about the billions. Don’t be afraid to do epic shit. 1. Doers, not talkers When the Garage started, the other innovation groups at Microsoft had one thing in common. They were built around ideas. Submit an idea. Vote on the ideas. Fund a few winners.

This was bad for a couple of reasons.

First, it attracted people who liked talking about things more than doing them.

Second, voting doesn’t work. Put ideas to a vote and the obvious ones win. But if an idea is obvious, someone has probably already built it. What you’re really looking for is someone with a special insight. Committees are terrible at spotting special insights.

So the Garage focused on people building small projects. Nobody had to vote. Nobody had to agree. If you wanted to build it, you built it.

That meant someone could build a test tool that made one annoying part of their job easier. Clark Roberts, Victor Boctor, and Mike Cook thought code reviews were too painful, so they co-built CodeFlow as a Garage project. It spread across Microsoft’s development teams and eventually into Visual Studio. Philip Su coded up Dr. Who, the fastest way to look someone up inside the company. Truong Do wanted one mouse and keyboard for all his computers, so he built Mouse Without Borders, which became the first Garage project released to the public.

None of those would have survived a vote. All of them were useful.

It also attracted a certain kind of person. The best coders are often the best because they just love to code. They code all day at work, then go home and code on nights and weekends. Those were Garage people.

Folks like Philip, who went on to be a tech CEO and site lead for Facebook and OpenAI. Vijaye Raji, who built Small Basic as a side project long before he founded Statsig and became CTO of Applications at OpenAI. And the CodeFlow crew: Victor, now a Technical Fellow at Airbnb; Clark, who leads engineering at TaxBit; and Mike, now an engineering leader at Clipboard Health.

As Chris puts it, they fell somewhere between startup founder and safe corporate employee. They wanted the security of a day job and also wanted to chase a dream. No surprise so many went on to do amazing things.

They weren’t interested in sitting around talking about ideas. They wanted to build things that solved their own problems.

It’s also why Ben Gilbert, now of Acquired fame, was the perfect person to take over the Garage after I left. Ben had always been a Garage type of person, building his own iPhone apps on the side. It’s the same doers-not-talkers spirit that led him and David Rosenthal to start hacking on Acquired way back before podcasts had blown up.

2. Make it a potluck The Garage had a tiny budget. Me, one amazing contractor, Liane, and a little money for pizza and poster boards.

Meanwhile, one of the other groups had a chocolate fountain at their event.

Our tiny budget looked like a weakness. It turned out to be one of our biggest assets.

When people asked us to do something, we couldn’t just pay for it. When employees at Microsoft’s Hyderabad campus asked us to put on a science fair, we said: we’d love to support you, but you’ll need to find a way to fund it.

Two good things happened.

First, it was a great screen. Only the really motivated people made it happen. And when people know they’re expected to lead, they do.

Second, they went to their local leadership and got them to pay for it. And once leadership paid for it, it was their science fair. Not something some outside group was telling them to do.

This happened again and again. Bing wanted a science fair, so Bing sponsored it. The Developer Division wanted one, so DevDiv sponsored it. And because they were paying for it, their leaders wanted it to succeed. They showed up. And each one made the next easier. We could point to a science fair that had worked somewhere else instead of starting cold.

The Garage became something lots of people owned. The well-funded groups never got that. They were islands. Leaders saw them as distractions, and probably a little arrogant for thinking they knew how to innovate.

Turns out a potluck beats a chocolate fountain.

3. Don’t worry about the billions I remember when Steve Ballmer visited Office Labs. Chris Pratley said that after the visit, Steve just asked: “So where’s my next billion-dollar idea?”

That one question explains a lot about why innovation is so hard at big companies.

If you’re an entrepreneur, a business doing $10M, $20M, or $30M a year is a huge success. At Microsoft, it’s a distraction. Big companies are looking for multi-billion-dollar businesses, and they’ll shut down things that are only tens of millions.

So the medium ideas get killed for being too small. And the big ideas need so many resources that they rarely make it either.

The irony is that billion-dollar businesses rarely look like it at the start. Facebook and Twitter didn’t even have a way to make money early on. Demand a path to a billion before you start, and you kill grassroots innovation.

We sidestepped all of that. The Garage was never about finding billion-dollar ideas. It was about supporting people doing grassroots innovation. Helping them build skills, ship things, make friends across the company, and make their own teams better.

Nobody could ask us where the billions were. We never promised any.

People always asked Ben, who ran the Garage after me, “What came out of it?” His answer: mostly culture. And keeping great people at Microsoft who went back to their day jobs re-energized. Look at that list of alumni again. Pretty good return on pizza and poster boards.

4. Don’t be afraid to do epic shit Microsoft employees gather for a Garage volcano eruption, one of the program’s “epic” moments. (Photo courtesy of Quinn Hawkins) One of my favorite Garage stickers said “Do epic shit.” We stole it from J Allard, who’d used it on Xbox.

It was controversial. People worried that a swear word in our materials wouldn’t be appreciated by everybody. They were right. It wasn’t.

But it had a very different energy from the rest of Microsoft. That was the point.

When you’re doing something like this, it helps to step outside the corporate culture and have a little fun. We never wanted to be arrogant. But we did do really fun stuff. Like a giant volcano, built by two pyromaniacs, that got bigger and bolder every time. Or giving people access to a laser cutter with only minimal training.

“Doers, not talkers” had the same tension. People worried it excluded folks who couldn’t code. And honestly, it did. But to have an identity, you have to say what you are and what you aren’t.

When you’re small and scrappy, you have to take risks. And you have to be willing to have an identity that isn’t for everybody.

Thank you The Garage is ending, but I don’t think it’s really going away. It lives on in the people who built things there and took that habit with them. It definitely lives on in my network.

To everyone who ever hacked on something in the Garage, came to a science fair, ate pizza at Stay Late and Code, or set something on fire on purpose: thank you.

To those who got to be there at the beginning and in the middle of it all (Chris Pratley, Liane Donald, Ben Gilbert, Jen Michelstein, Joe Coplen, and others): it was a blast.

And if you only remember four things let them be: Find the doers. Make it a potluck. Forget the billions. Do epic shit.

Capasso Planning Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 2,554 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $953,000. Microsoft makes up about 0.5% of Capasso Planning Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest position.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $27,338,370,000. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $18,306,443,000. Amundi increased its position in Microsoft by 30.8% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 41,675,076 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $15,426,862,000 after buying an additional 9,814,598 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Microsoft by 10.5% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 29,323,744 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $10,852,884,000 after buying an additional 2,784,809 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in Microsoft by 64.3% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 24,264,779 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $8,982,083,000 after buying an additional 9,493,778 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Bank of America increased their target price on Microsoft from $500.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 1st. Melius Research set a $665.00 price target on shares of Microsoft and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 5th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $522.00 to $608.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, September 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 8th. Forty-three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $592.15.

View Our Latest Stock Report on MSFT Microsoft Trading Down 2.2% Microsoft stock opened at $521.08 on Friday. Microsoft Corporation has a one year low of $349.20 and a one year high of $553.72. The business’s fifty day moving average is $507.93 and its 200 day moving average is $445.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.87 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 1.22.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.50. The business had revenue of $90.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 40.31% and a return on equity of 31.98%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.65 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.65 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.98 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 19th. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 20.27%.

More Microsoft News Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s AI diagnostic system reportedly diagnosed complex medical cases more than twice as often as generalist physicians in a simulation published in Science. The result supports the company’s ambitions in healthcare and “medical superintelligence.” Microsoft AI medical diagnostic study Positive Sentiment: Reports highlighted strong underlying cloud momentum: Azure annual revenue has surpassed $100 billion, cloud-services growth reached 43%, and Microsoft’s commercial backlog rose to approximately $678 billion. These trends could support the investment case if the company demonstrates continued acceleration in its upcoming earnings report. Microsoft cloud demand and backlog Positive Sentiment: CEO Satya Nadella said Microsoft is reorganizing around AI agents, broader model choice and lower-cost computing. The strategy could expand Copilot and Azure adoption across business workflows. Microsoft AI agent strategy Positive Sentiment: A strategic collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim will pursue AI-backed clinical development and digital patient twins, providing another potential application for Microsoft’s cloud and AI platforms. Microsoft and Boehringer Ingelheim partnership Neutral Sentiment: Investors are focused on next week’s fiscal first-quarter earnings report. Analysts expect double-digit earnings growth, but the market increasingly wants evidence that Azure growth can keep pace with rivals and justify Microsoft’s substantial AI infrastructure investments. Microsoft earnings preview Negative Sentiment: Microsoft’s large AI capital expenditures remain a key valuation risk. While spending may create a long-term competitive moat, investors are concerned that data-center and infrastructure costs could pressure near-term returns, especially amid higher interest rates and market volatility. Microsoft AI spending and investment risk Negative Sentiment: Xbox announced pricing for cloud streaming of games users already own, prompting concerns about consumer reaction and pressure on Microsoft’s gaming business. Xbox cloud gaming pricing Negative Sentiment: Former CEO Bill Gates warned that AI could bring roughly two decades of disruption, reinforcing investor concerns about an AI investment bubble and the potential for expensive projects to produce uncertain returns. Bill Gates AI disruption comments Insider Activity at Microsoft In related news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $487.89, for a total transaction of $4,878,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 100,447 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,007,086.83. This represents a 9.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Amy Hood sold 41,674 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $498.27, for a total transaction of $20,764,903.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 533,624 shares in the company, valued at approximately $265,888,830.48. The trade was a 7.24% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 150,314 shares of company stock valued at $75,404,992 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Profile (Free Report)

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a global technology company that develops software, cloud services, devices and digital platforms. Its products and services are used by consumers, businesses, governments and educational institutions worldwide.

The company’s principal offerings include the Windows operating system; Microsoft 365 productivity applications such as Word, Excel, Teams and Outlook; Azure cloud computing and infrastructure services; Dynamics business applications; and enterprise security solutions.

Read More Five stocks we like better than Microsoft Is Texas Instruments Setting Up for Its Next Big Breakout? Pegasystems’ Q3 Miss Exposed the Problem Standing Between AI and Cash Flow Lam Research’s Earnings Beat Wasn’t the Real Story—Its 2027 Outlook Was Tesla’s Flying-Car Hype Hits an Earnings Reality Check Want to see what other hedge funds are holding MSFT? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report).

Receive News & Ratings for Microsoft Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Microsoft and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.

Concorde Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 3,698 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $1,379,000. Microsoft makes up 0.8% of Concorde Asset Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 15th largest holding.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in Microsoft in the second quarter worth approximately $27,338,370,000. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the second quarter valued at approximately $18,306,443,000. Amundi increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 30.8% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 41,675,076 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $15,426,862,000 after acquiring an additional 9,814,598 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 10.5% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 29,323,744 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $10,852,884,000 after acquiring an additional 2,784,809 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 64.3% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 24,264,779 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $8,982,083,000 after purchasing an additional 9,493,778 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Microsoft Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s AI diagnostic system reportedly diagnosed complex medical cases more than twice as often as generalist physicians in a simulation published in Science. The result supports the company’s ambitions in healthcare and “medical superintelligence.” Microsoft AI medical diagnostic study Positive Sentiment: Reports highlighted strong underlying cloud momentum: Azure annual revenue has surpassed $100 billion, cloud-services growth reached 43%, and Microsoft’s commercial backlog rose to approximately $678 billion. These trends could support the investment case if the company demonstrates continued acceleration in its upcoming earnings report. Microsoft cloud demand and backlog Positive Sentiment: CEO Satya Nadella said Microsoft is reorganizing around AI agents, broader model choice and lower-cost computing. The strategy could expand Copilot and Azure adoption across business workflows. Microsoft AI agent strategy Positive Sentiment: A strategic collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim will pursue AI-backed clinical development and digital patient twins, providing another potential application for Microsoft’s cloud and AI platforms. Microsoft and Boehringer Ingelheim partnership Neutral Sentiment: Investors are focused on next week’s fiscal first-quarter earnings report. Analysts expect double-digit earnings growth, but the market increasingly wants evidence that Azure growth can keep pace with rivals and justify Microsoft’s substantial AI infrastructure investments. Microsoft earnings preview Negative Sentiment: Microsoft’s large AI capital expenditures remain a key valuation risk. While spending may create a long-term competitive moat, investors are concerned that data-center and infrastructure costs could pressure near-term returns, especially amid higher interest rates and market volatility. Microsoft AI spending and investment risk Negative Sentiment: Xbox announced pricing for cloud streaming of games users already own, prompting concerns about consumer reaction and pressure on Microsoft’s gaming business. Xbox cloud gaming pricing Negative Sentiment: Former CEO Bill Gates warned that AI could bring roughly two decades of disruption, reinforcing investor concerns about an AI investment bubble and the potential for expensive projects to produce uncertain returns. Bill Gates AI disruption comments Microsoft Trading Down 2.2% Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $521.08 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $507.93 and a 200 day simple moving average of $445.62. Microsoft Corporation has a 12-month low of $349.20 and a 12-month high of $553.72. The company has a market capitalization of $3.87 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.50. The business had revenue of $90.01 billion for 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 business’s revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.65 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 19th will be given a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 19th. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 20.27%.

Insider Activity In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,810 shares of the business’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 value of $2,388,068.80. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 42,677 shares in the company, valued at $21,188,276.96. The trade was a 10.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 86,525 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $501.46, for a total value of $43,388,826.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 486,763 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $244,092,173.98. This represents a 15.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 150,314 shares of company stock worth $75,404,992. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Microsoft from $575.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 14th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 1st. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $440.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, September 21st. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Microsoft from an “overweight” rating to a “negative” rating in a report on Monday, October 5th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $615.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 5th. Forty-three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $592.15.

View Our Latest Stock Report on Microsoft

Microsoft Company Profile (Free Report)

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a global technology company that develops software, cloud services, devices and digital platforms. Its products and services are used by consumers, businesses, governments and educational institutions worldwide.

The company’s principal offerings include the Windows operating system; Microsoft 365 productivity applications such as Word, Excel, Teams and Outlook; Azure cloud computing and infrastructure services; Dynamics business applications; and enterprise security solutions.

Read More Five stocks we like better than Microsoft Is Texas Instruments Setting Up for Its Next Big Breakout? Pegasystems’ Q3 Miss Exposed the Problem Standing Between AI and Cash Flow Lam Research’s Earnings Beat Wasn’t the Real Story—Its 2027 Outlook Was Tesla’s Flying-Car Hype Hits an Earnings Reality Check

Receive News & Ratings for Microsoft Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Microsoft and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.

Fox Hill Wealth Management acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 44,074 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $16,440,000. Microsoft accounts for about 6.6% of Fox Hill Wealth Management’s holdings, making the stock its largest holding.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MSFT. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management increased its stake in Microsoft by 4.0% in the 2nd quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 229,490 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $85,604,000 after buying an additional 8,773 shares during the last quarter. D.B. Root & Company LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth about $3,652,000. Dearborn Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth about $75,641,000. Markel Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% during the 1st 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. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 8.4% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 6,921,677 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,562,197,000 after buying an additional 537,634 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Microsoft News Roundup Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s AI diagnostic system reportedly diagnosed complex medical cases more than twice as often as generalist physicians in a simulation published in Science. The result supports the company’s ambitions in healthcare and “medical superintelligence.” Microsoft AI medical diagnostic study Positive Sentiment: Reports highlighted strong underlying cloud momentum: Azure annual revenue has surpassed $100 billion, cloud-services growth reached 43%, and Microsoft’s commercial backlog rose to approximately $678 billion. These trends could support the investment case if the company demonstrates continued acceleration in its upcoming earnings report. Microsoft cloud demand and backlog Positive Sentiment: CEO Satya Nadella said Microsoft is reorganizing around AI agents, broader model choice and lower-cost computing. The strategy could expand Copilot and Azure adoption across business workflows. Microsoft AI agent strategy Positive Sentiment: A strategic collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim will pursue AI-backed clinical development and digital patient twins, providing another potential application for Microsoft’s cloud and AI platforms. Microsoft and Boehringer Ingelheim partnership Neutral Sentiment: Investors are focused on next week’s fiscal first-quarter earnings report. Analysts expect double-digit earnings growth, but the market increasingly wants evidence that Azure growth can keep pace with rivals and justify Microsoft’s substantial AI infrastructure investments. Microsoft earnings preview Negative Sentiment: Microsoft’s large AI capital expenditures remain a key valuation risk. While spending may create a long-term competitive moat, investors are concerned that data-center and infrastructure costs could pressure near-term returns, especially amid higher interest rates and market volatility. Microsoft AI spending and investment risk Negative Sentiment: Xbox announced pricing for cloud streaming of games users already own, prompting concerns about consumer reaction and pressure on Microsoft’s gaming business. Xbox cloud gaming pricing Negative Sentiment: Former CEO Bill Gates warned that AI could bring roughly two decades of disruption, reinforcing investor concerns about an AI investment bubble and the potential for expensive projects to produce uncertain returns. Bill Gates AI disruption comments Insiders Place Their Bets In other Microsoft news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $487.89, for a total transaction 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,810 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $496.48, for a total value of $2,388,068.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 42,677 shares in the company, valued at $21,188,276.96. This represents a 10.13% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 150,314 shares of company stock worth $75,404,992 in the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders. Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades Several brokerages have recently weighed in on MSFT. Citizens Jmp restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday, September 15th. Mizuho upped their target price on Microsoft from $510.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 15th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, September 28th. Finally, William Blair started coverage on Microsoft in a research report on Monday, October 5th. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. Forty-three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $592.15.

Get Our Latest Research Report on MSFT

Microsoft Stock Performance Shares of MSFT opened at $521.08 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.87 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.10. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $507.93 and a 200-day moving average of $445.62. Microsoft Corporation has a one year low of $349.20 and a one year high of $553.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 1.22.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. Microsoft had a net margin of 40.31% and a return on equity of 31.98%. The company had revenue of $90.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $87.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.65 EPS. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.98 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 19th. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 20.27%.

About Microsoft (Free Report)

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a global technology company that develops software, cloud services, devices and digital platforms. Its products and services are used by consumers, businesses, governments and educational institutions worldwide.

The company’s principal offerings include the Windows operating system; Microsoft 365 productivity applications such as Word, Excel, Teams and Outlook; Azure cloud computing and infrastructure services; Dynamics business applications; and enterprise security solutions.

Read More Five stocks we like better than Microsoft Is Texas Instruments Setting Up for Its Next Big Breakout? Pegasystems’ Q3 Miss Exposed the Problem Standing Between AI and Cash Flow Lam Research’s Earnings Beat Wasn’t the Real Story—Its 2027 Outlook Was Tesla’s Flying-Car Hype Hits an Earnings Reality Check

Receive News & Ratings for Microsoft Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Microsoft and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares are in the spotlight, with earnings on deck, Azure growth and capital spending in focus, recent analyst activity, a technical setup showing a short-term cooldown and Edge Rankings all drawing attention.

Microsoft shares are feeling bearish pressure. Where is MSFT stock headed? Earnings Preview & HistoryMicrosoft is scheduled to report fiscal first-quarter earnings on Oct. 28 after the market closes. Analysts estimate earnings per share of $4.72 along with revenue of $90.69 billion. For the prior quarter, Microsoft reported earnings per share of $4.74, beating the consensus estimate of $4.24. The company also posted revenue of $90.01 billion, beating the consensus estimate of $87.62 billion.

What to Watch: Azure Growth, AI Spending and Microsoft 365 Copilot MomentumInvestors will be closely tracking Azure, which grew 43% in the fourth quarter, after Microsoft guided to about 45% in constant currency for the first quarter and said growth should keep accelerating through the first half of fiscal 2027. Quarterly revenue is guided to $89.85 billion to $90.95 billion, up 16% to 17%. Capital spending will be in focus too. Microsoft said first-quarter capex would exceed $50 billion and kept its calendar 2026 capex outlook at about $175 billion, down from about $190 billion in April.

Free cash flow fell 23% in the fourth quarter on heavy spending, and management expects it to stay positive in fiscal 2027. Commercial remaining performance obligation rose 84% to $678 billion, and Microsoft 365 Copilot passed 30 million paid seats, so the pace of both will be watched. Shares jumped about 25% over two days after the last report, per FinancialGurkha.

Analyst Consensus & Recent Actions The stock carries a Buy rating with an average price forecast of $605.65. Recent analyst moves include:

Guggenheim: Buy (Maintains Target to $586.00) (Oct. 21) BMO Capital: Outperform (Raises Target to $600.00) (Oct. 20) Bernstein: Outperform (Raises Target to $662.00) (Oct. 19) Microsoft Trades 2.1% Above Its 50-Day Average, With an August Golden Cross IntactFrom a trend perspective, Microsoft is still in a constructive longer-term setup: it’s trading about 2.1% above its 50-day SMA ($508.31) and well above its 100-day SMA ($459.86) and 200-day SMA ($436.49). At the same time, it’s now about 1.4% below its 20-day SMA ($526.41), which frames this move as a short-term cooldown inside a broader uptrend.

RSI is the cleaner momentum read right now, sitting at 48.07, which points to neutral momentum rather than an overbought or oversold extreme. Simply put, RSI helps gauge whether recent buying or selling has become "stretched," and this reading suggests neither side has clear control.

The moving-average structure still leans bullish, with the 20-day SMA above the 50-day SMA and the golden cross that formed in August (50-day SMA above the 200-day SMA) still intact. Traders will be watching whether this dip stays "above the 50-day" (trend support) or turns into a deeper mean-reversion move.

Key Resistance: $551.00 — a round-number area sitting just below the 52-week high zone ($553.72), where rallies can stall Key Support: $486.00 — a nearby downside level that lines up as a prior buyer-defense zone if selling pressure builds Benzinga Edge RankingsBelow is the Benzinga Edge scorecard for Microsoft, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses compared to the broader market:

Momentum: Bullish (Score: 86.92) — The stock is showing strong relative strength versus the broader market despite today’s dip. Quality: Bullish (Score: 86.65) — The scorecard suggests strong underlying business quality versus most peers. Value: Weak (Score: 20.03) — Valuation looks expensive versus the market, which can make the stock more sensitive during selloffs. Growth: Bullish (Score: 96.52) — Expectations for growth remain a key pillar supporting the longer-term trend. The Verdict: Microsoft’s Benzinga Edge signal reveals a classic High-Flyer setup, with growth and momentum doing most of the heavy lifting while value screens poorly. For longer-term bulls, the main question is whether the stock can hold trend support into earnings, because premium names can see sharper swings when sentiment turns.

Read Next

Microsoft Shares Trade FlatMSFT Price Action: At the time of publication, Microsoft shares are trading 0.19% lower at $520.07, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

Image via Shutterstock

This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

© 2026 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.

Here at Zacks, we offer our members many different opportunities to take full advantage of the stock market, as well as how to invest in ways that lead to long-term success.

The Zacks Premium service, which provides daily updates of the Zacks Rank and Zacks Industry Rank; full access to the Zacks #1 Rank List; Equity Research reports; and Premium stock screens like the Earnings ESP filter, makes these more manageable goals. All of the features can help you identify what stocks to buy, what to sell, and what are today's hottest industries.

Also included in Zacks Premium is the Focus List. This is a long-term portfolio of top stocks that have all the traits to beat the market.

Breaking Down the Zacks Focus ListIf you could get access to a curated list of stocks to kickstart your investment portfolio, wouldn't you jump at the chance to take a peek?

Enter the Zacks Focus List. It's a portfolio made up of 50 stocks that are set to beat the market over the next 12 months; each company selected serves as a foundation for long-term investors looking to create an individual portfolio.

What makes the Focus List even more helpful is that each selection is accompanied by a full Zacks Analyst Report, which explains the reasoning behind every stock's selection and why we believe it's a good pick for the long-term.

The portfolio's past performance only solidifies why investors should consider it as a starting point. For 2020, the Focus List gained 13.85% on an annualized basis compared to the S&P 500's return of 9.38%. Cumulatively, the portfolio has returned 2,519.23% while the S&P returned 854.95%. Returns are for the period of February 1, 1996 to March 31, 2021.

Focus List MethodologyWhen stocks are picked for the Focus List, it reflects our enduring reliance on the power of earnings estimate revisions.

Brokerage analysts are in charge of determining a company's growth and profitability expectations, or earnings estimates. These analysts work together with company management to evaluate all factors that may affect future earnings, like interest rates, the economy, and sector and industry optimism.

What a company will earn down the road also needs to be taken into consideration, and this is why earnings estimate revisions are so important.

Stocks that receive upward earnings estimate revisions are more likely to receive even more upward changes in the future. For example, if an analyst raised their estimates last month, they're more likely to do it again this month, and other analysts are likely to do the same.

Utilizing the power of earnings estimate revisions is when the Zacks Rank joins the party. A unique, proprietary stock-rating model, the Zacks Rank uses changes to quarterly earnings expectations to help investors create a winning portfolio.

The Zacks Rank consists of four main pillars: Agreement, Magnitude, Upside, and Surprise. Each one is given a raw score, which is recalculated every night and compiled into the Rank. Then, stocks are classified into five groups, ranging from "Strong Buy" to "Strong Sell," using this data.

The Focus List is comprised of stocks hand-picked from a long list of #1 (Strong Buy) or #2 (Buy) ranked companies, meaning that each new addition boasts a bullish earnings consensus among analysts.

Because stock prices react to revisions, buying stocks with rising earnings estimates can be very profitable. Focus List stocks offer investors a great opportunity to get into companies whose future earnings estimates will be raised, potentially leading to price momentum.

Focus List Spotlight: Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) Redmond, WA-based Microsoft Corporation is one of the largest broad-based technology providers in the world. The company holds the leading position in the PC software market with its Windows operating system. 

MSFT, a #3 (Hold) stock, was added to the Focus List on February 1, 2016 at $55.09 per share. Since then, shares have increased 845.87% to $521.08.

Four analysts revised their earnings estimate higher in the last 60 days for fiscal 2027, while the Zacks Consensus Estimate has increased $0.04 to $19.65. MSFT also boasts an average earnings surprise of 9.3%.

Earnings for MSFT are forecasted to see growth of 9.5% for the current fiscal year as well.

Reveal Winning StocksUnlock all of our powerful research, tools and analysis, including the Zacks #1 Rank List, Equity Research Reports, Zacks Earnings ESP Filter, Premium Screener and more, as part of Zacks Premium. You'll quickly identify which stocks to buy, hold and sell, and target today's hottest industries, to help improve the performance of your portfolio. Gain full access now >>

Archer Investment Corp increased its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) by 11.2% in the undefined quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 19,471 shares of the software giant's stock after purchasing an additional 1,957 shares during the quarter.

Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 874,315 shares of the software giant's stock, valued at approximately $326,137,000. Microsoft comprises about 1.5% of Beacon

Microsoft (MSFT.O) researchers say an AI tool that diagnoses patients step by step, as doctors do, was more than twice as accurate as general physicians at solving complex medical ​cases, according to a study published on Thursday in Science.

The model identifies and coordinates ‌the questions that should be asked of a patient, as well as the exams and tests that should be ordered, using an "orchestrator" that organizes how AI will tackle a problem by employing a simulated panel of clinical ​experts collaborating to solve diagnostic cases, according to the report.

Existing medical AI models typically take ​an all-at-once approach that examines all of a patient's symptoms, lab results ⁠and imaging studies to generate a diagnosis.

With the orchestrator coordinating the steps to reaching a diagnosis, ​the AI model first decides what to ask about the patient’s history and what is significant ​in the physical exam. Based on what it learns, it decides which tests to order, considers the results, and orders further testing as appropriate.

All the while, it is updating its working hypotheses and plans, the research leaders said ​in an interview.

Tasked with diagnosing more than 300 highly unusual and confusing medical dilemmas, the ​model employing the diagnostic orchestrator was more than twice as accurate at "working up" the patient and determining the diagnosis ‌as ⁠general physicians using textbooks and the internet.

The tool also outperformed human physicians when presented with scenarios drawn from a major database of emergency room admissions.

Assessments comparing these types of older systems to human doctors usually use multiple-choice questions, the researchers said.

"AI has become very good at getting a 100% ​pass rate on those,” ​said Dr. Dominic King, ⁠the corporate vice president of the health unit at Microsoft AI, whose team is developing the new technology.

“But of course, that's not real-world. No ​patient ever came to see me with a nice summary.”

The researchers also ​found that ⁠diagnostic processes cost less when the orchestrator designs the work-ups than when human doctors do.

“We're not just measuring the accuracy of the systems. We're also measuring how judiciously and carefully it goes through a ⁠diagnostic ​work-up,” said Harsha Nori, head of AI at Microsoft AI ​Health.

In a collaboration with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, the researchers will next test the tool’s ability to ​triage patients in emergency department waiting rooms.

Microsoft’s AI diagnostic system correctly diagnosed complex medical cases in a simulation more than twice as often as generalist physicians, according to a study published Thursday in Science. Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft AI’s CEO, called the result a step toward “medical superintelligence.”

The system, dubbed MAI-DxO (DxO for short), coordinates several AI agents that act like a panel of doctors. They question a patient, order tests, and debate a diagnosis.

In a simulation using complex cases from the New England Journal of Medicine, it was correct 83% of the time. Primary care doctors and general internists, working individually with reference materials, were correct 36% of the time. One note: Cases this complex are usually handled by specialists or physician teams, who weren’t part of the comparison.

“There is something very substantial and exciting here,” Dominic King, vice president of Health at Microsoft AI, told TechCrunch. “The biggest challenge in healthcare delivery at the moment is the growing mismatch between demand and supply of medical expertise.”

In publishing these results, Microsoft joins Google and OpenAI in claiming that its AI can match or outperform doctors.

The study’s own data suggests that much of the improvement comes from more powerful underlying AI models, with Microsoft’s orchestration system adding gains on top.

Microsoft tested MAI-DxO with models from several companies, including OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Meta, and DeepSeek, but its best results came with OpenAI’s GPT-5 and GPT-5.5. 

Accuracy improvements delivered by DxO (no budget constraints) on CPC over models
prompted with baseline prompt across different large language models.Image Credits:Microsoft AI
Microsoft measured DxO on cost as well as accuracy, meaning the estimated cost of running the AI on each case. On its own with a short, basic prompt, GPT-5 scored 78.9% on complex cases at about $8,400 per case. DxO cut that cost by about $3,000 but raised accuracy by only about four points. On emergency department cases, there was little improvement in either accuracy or cost improvement between GPT-5 on its own and with the assist from DxO.

With GPT-5.5, a newer model released in April 2026, the results split. On complex cases, DxO increased GPT-5.5’s accuracy score from 72% to nearly 87% at a slightly cheaper cost. However, the gains once again didn’t show up on emergency department cases. Both (with and without DxO) scored about 85% at a similar cost. 

DxO helps most on complex cases and with less capable AI models. Gemini 2.5 Flash, for example, scored 46.4% on its own but nearly 69% with DxO. Even so, the gap between the weaker and stronger models was larger than the boost DxO provided.

Microsoft’s researchers said that accuracy gains naturally shrink as models approach the theoretical maximum. “The DxO orchestration helps with the broader challenge of optimization both accuracy and cost,” a spokesperson added.

Suleyman, who leads Microsoft’s effort to build its own frontier AI, told TechCrunch that the company is working with the Mayo Clinic to train a foundation model for healthcare, with release planned for next year. He believes this model will enable the company to “make really enormous leaps here,” and says DxO is part of the foundational infrastructure Microsoft is building to see real breakthroughs in healthcare. 

“I really believe that in 2027, we will be on the verge of a coding style breakthrough for medical records,” Suleyman said. “I think we’re going to be able to stream highly accurate predictions about how a medical record might unfold, and obviously that kind of foresight for a clinician is gold dust.”

Suleyman has spent his career trying to use AI to solve medical issues. He was previously a co-founder of DeepMind, which was acquired by Google in 2014. The following year, Google DeepMind acquired King’s startup Hark, a clinical task management app, and the two of them launched DeepMind Health together. Suleyman joined Microsoft to lead its AI unit in 2024, and King followed a few months later.

“We’re just true believers,” Suleyman said.

He said while the use of generative AI in healthcare is still early, he expects healthcare models to get “an order of magnitude better in capability within the next 24 to 36 months.” 

“As we’ve seen multiple times in the last five or six years, the progress happens very quickly once you have a flywheel,” Suleyman said. “A flywheel means we have a model in production which we are iterating with real-world usage in order to identify gaps in the model and then patch them and improve them. That’s what’s happened in coding. It’s what happened in chat before that. And I think next year it’s going to start to happen for medical records and for clinical decision support.”

Through a new partnership with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Microsoft will evaluate the clinical reasoning capabilities of DxO across different hospital settings.

“This technology is ready for real-world evaluations, and you can imagine the complexity and diversity of issues that come from a Boston emergency department on a Friday evening,” King said.

He explained how the study will work: Patients will get standard treatment, including triage, time with a specialist, treatments, investigations, and decision on whether it’s safe to discharge. In parallel, those who consent will also engage with DxO. Microsoft and its partners will compare DxO’s recommendations against the human doctors’. 

Google published a clinical study alongside Beth Israel in The Lancet this month to evaluate Google’s AMIE conversational diagnostic AI in real-world urgent care visits, while human physicians monitored the interactions in real time. 

“We think this will be the biggest study of its kind,” King said. “It will be across not just emergency settings but urgent care environments, and will give us very compelling evidence by the end of the study period around the ability for these systems to be deployed at greater scale in the future.”

Microsoft’s study in Science coincides with a manifesto of sorts around what it will take to build medical superintelligence, defined as “the capacity to surpass the strongest contemporary human-led health systems in medical reasoning and coordination across the full arc of care.” Microsoft hopes to move beyond benchmarking individual tasks — like answering medical exam questions and generating diagnoses — into integrating with clinicians and healthcare systems for better outcomes. 

“This is the kind of technology that everybody in the world wants, and that’s why we’re committed to doing everything we can to accelerate its introduction to the world,” Suleyman said, adding that this focus could be a differentiator for Microsoft compared to the other frontier labs. 

Microsoft already sells dictation and radiology tools to clinicians and sees DxO as an expansion to those efforts. 

“We have to have the absolute number one state-of-the-art medical clinical decision support products over the next few years,” Suleyman said. 

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

Caitlin John LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 2,428 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $906,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Asset Allocation Strategies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at about $778,000. Ruggaard & Associates LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter worth approximately $1,987,000. Equitable Holdings Inc. bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter worth approximately $146,430,000. Centaurus Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the second quarter valued at approximately $27,275,000. Finally, Brasada Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the second quarter valued at approximately $6,645,000. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes A number of analysts have recently issued reports on MSFT shares. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday. Needham & Company LLC started coverage on Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, September 23rd. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and set a $586.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Microsoft from $700.00 to $725.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 1st. Finally, Evercore upgraded Microsoft from an “underperform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 5th. Forty-three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $592.15.

Get Our Latest Analysis on MSFT Microsoft Stock Up 0.2% MSFT opened at $532.95 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $3.96 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.10. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $507.45 and its 200-day moving average price is $444.58. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. Microsoft Corporation has a 12 month low of $349.20 and a 12 month high of $553.72.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.50. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.98% and a net margin of 40.31%. The company had revenue of $90.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $87.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.65 EPS. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.65 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 19th will be given a $0.98 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 19th. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 20.27%.

More Microsoft News Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

Positive Sentiment: Expectations are building for another earnings beat, with demand for Azure cloud infrastructure, Microsoft 365 and Copilot supporting revenue and earnings growth. The key catalyst will be Microsoft’s October 28 report, where investors will look for accelerating Azure growth and evidence that AI investments are translating into monetization. Microsoft Earnings Preview Positive Sentiment: Microsoft remains viewed favorably as a relatively cash-generative way to participate in the AI-cloud buildout. While Oracle’s cloud growth is faster, Microsoft’s stronger free cash flow, lower leverage and broad enterprise installed base may provide greater financial resilience as AI capital expenditures rise. Oracle Versus Microsoft Positive Sentiment: A new Boeing fleet-intelligence platform, Dataliner, is being built on Microsoft Azure AI Foundry. The partnership could add a recurring enterprise workload for Azure and demonstrate Microsoft’s ability to embed AI in industry-specific applications. Boeing and Microsoft Dataliner Positive Sentiment: Tavant’s Microsoft Fabric accelerator is now available through Microsoft Marketplace, potentially making it easier for businesses to deploy Fabric-based analytics and AI solutions across Azure. Tavant Fabric Accelerator Neutral Sentiment: GitHub Copilot is reportedly a major customer of Anthropic, highlighting demand for Microsoft’s AI developer tools but also exposing reliance on outside model providers and potential supplier concentration risk. Anthropic Revenue Concentration Negative Sentiment: Microsoft’s withdrawal as anchor tenant from a U.K. AI data-center project because of power-supply delays underscores a growing constraint: electricity and grid access may slow Azure’s AI capacity expansion and increase infrastructure costs. Microsoft Withdraws From UK AI Data Center Project Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that elevated prices for components could make Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox, Project Helix, less competitive or pressure demand. The gaming business is also undergoing restructuring, adding uncertainty beyond Azure and productivity software. Project Helix Pricing Concerns Insider Buying and Selling In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 86,525 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $501.46, for a total transaction of $43,388,826.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 486,763 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $244,092,173.98. This represents a 15.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Amy Hood sold 7,305 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $545.42, for a total value of $3,984,293.10. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 555,396 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $302,924,086.32. This trade represents a 1.30% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 150,314 shares of company stock worth $75,404,992. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Company Profile (Free Report)

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a global technology company that develops software, cloud services, devices and digital platforms. Its products and services are used by consumers, businesses, governments and educational institutions worldwide.

The company’s principal offerings include the Windows operating system; Microsoft 365 productivity applications such as Word, Excel, Teams and Outlook; Azure cloud computing and infrastructure services; Dynamics business applications; and enterprise security solutions.

See Also Five stocks we like better than Microsoft GM Beat and Added a $20 Billion Buyback—Why Did the Stock Fall? Intercepting Growth: Karman Secures $218M Lockheed Martin Deal Tech Stocks Took a Hit—These 2 Pharma Stocks Are Near New Highs Chip Stocks Have Pulled Back—Here’s How 3 Semiconductor ETFs Stack Up for Investors

Receive News & Ratings for Microsoft Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Microsoft and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.

Brooks Moore & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 20,529 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $7,658,000. Microsoft comprises 3.4% of Brooks Moore & Associates Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest holding.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management grew its stake in Microsoft by 4.0% during the 2nd quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 229,490 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $85,604,000 after buying an additional 8,773 shares during the last quarter. D.B. Root & Company LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the second quarter worth $3,652,000. Markel Group Inc. increased its position in Microsoft by 0.4% in 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 period. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its stake in Microsoft by 8.4% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 6,921,677 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,562,197,000 after buying an additional 537,634 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. lifted its stake in Microsoft by 138.8% in the first quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 1,356,359 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $502,077,000 after buying an additional 788,297 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

More Microsoft News Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

Positive Sentiment: Expectations are building for another earnings beat, with demand for Azure cloud infrastructure, Microsoft 365 and Copilot supporting revenue and earnings growth. The key catalyst will be Microsoft’s October 28 report, where investors will look for accelerating Azure growth and evidence that AI investments are translating into monetization. Microsoft Earnings Preview Positive Sentiment: Microsoft remains viewed favorably as a relatively cash-generative way to participate in the AI-cloud buildout. While Oracle’s cloud growth is faster, Microsoft’s stronger free cash flow, lower leverage and broad enterprise installed base may provide greater financial resilience as AI capital expenditures rise. Oracle Versus Microsoft Positive Sentiment: A new Boeing fleet-intelligence platform, Dataliner, is being built on Microsoft Azure AI Foundry. The partnership could add a recurring enterprise workload for Azure and demonstrate Microsoft’s ability to embed AI in industry-specific applications. Boeing and Microsoft Dataliner Positive Sentiment: Tavant’s Microsoft Fabric accelerator is now available through Microsoft Marketplace, potentially making it easier for businesses to deploy Fabric-based analytics and AI solutions across Azure. Tavant Fabric Accelerator Neutral Sentiment: GitHub Copilot is reportedly a major customer of Anthropic, highlighting demand for Microsoft’s AI developer tools but also exposing reliance on outside model providers and potential supplier concentration risk. Anthropic Revenue Concentration Negative Sentiment: Microsoft’s withdrawal as anchor tenant from a U.K. AI data-center project because of power-supply delays underscores a growing constraint: electricity and grid access may slow Azure’s AI capacity expansion and increase infrastructure costs. Microsoft Withdraws From UK AI Data Center Project Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that elevated prices for components could make Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox, Project Helix, less competitive or pressure demand. The gaming business is also undergoing restructuring, adding uncertainty beyond Azure and productivity software. Project Helix Pricing Concerns Microsoft Stock Performance Shares of MSFT opened at $532.95 on Thursday. Microsoft Corporation has a 52 week low of $349.20 and a 52 week high of $553.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.23. The company has a market capitalization of $3.96 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.67, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.10. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $507.45 and its 200 day moving average price is $444.58. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.98% and a net margin of 40.31%. The firm had revenue of $90.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $87.62 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.65 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 19th will be paid a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 19th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 20.27%.

Analyst Ratings Changes MSFT has been the topic of several analyst reports. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $636.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, September 28th. Bank of America raised their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 1st. DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $550.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Melius Research set a $665.00 target price on shares of Microsoft and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 5th. Forty-three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $592.15.

Get Our Latest Report on Microsoft

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,810 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 42,677 shares in the company, valued at $21,188,276.96. This trade represents a 10.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Amy Hood sold 41,674 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $498.27, for a total value of $20,764,903.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 533,624 shares in the company, valued at $265,888,830.48. The trade was a 7.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 150,314 shares of company stock valued at $75,404,992. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Profile (Free Report)

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a global technology company that develops software, cloud services, devices and digital platforms. Its products and services are used by consumers, businesses, governments and educational institutions worldwide.

The company’s principal offerings include the Windows operating system; Microsoft 365 productivity applications such as Word, Excel, Teams and Outlook; Azure cloud computing and infrastructure services; Dynamics business applications; and enterprise security solutions.

Featured Stories Five stocks we like better than Microsoft GM Beat and Added a $20 Billion Buyback—Why Did the Stock Fall? Intercepting Growth: Karman Secures $218M Lockheed Martin Deal Tech Stocks Took a Hit—These 2 Pharma Stocks Are Near New Highs Chip Stocks Have Pulled Back—Here’s How 3 Semiconductor ETFs Stack Up for Investors

Receive News & Ratings for Microsoft Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Microsoft and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.

E Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 1,462 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $545,000. Microsoft accounts for about 0.4% of E Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 13th biggest position.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Sound Income Strategies LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 36,558 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $13,637,000 after purchasing an additional 1,811 shares in the last quarter. First Pacific Financial lifted its stake in Microsoft by 36.4% during the second quarter. First Pacific Financial now owns 28,183 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $10,513,000 after purchasing an additional 7,527 shares during the last quarter. Hamilton Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 12.3% during the second quarter. Hamilton Capital Partners LLC now owns 57,868 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $21,586,000 after buying an additional 6,339 shares in the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 3.2% during the second quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 180,462 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $67,316,000 after buying an additional 5,662 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brindle & Bay Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft in the second quarter worth approximately $756,000. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In Several research firms have issued reports on MSFT. Yorkville Ives assumed coverage on Microsoft in a report on Monday, October 5th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $615.00 price target on the stock. Citizens Jmp reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $550.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, September 15th. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their target price on Microsoft from $522.00 to $608.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 21st. Stifel Nicolaus raised Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $530.00 to $575.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 22nd. Finally, Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $575.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Forty-three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $592.15.

View Our Latest Stock Analysis on MSFT Insiders Place Their Bets In related news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $487.89, for a total value of $4,878,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 100,447 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $49,007,086.83. This represents a 9.05% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,810 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $496.48, for a total value of $2,388,068.80. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 42,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,188,276.96. The trade was a 10.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 150,314 shares of company stock worth $75,404,992. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.2% Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $532.95 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $507.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $444.58. Microsoft Corporation has a 52 week low of $349.20 and a 52 week high of $553.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.23. The company has a market cap of $3.96 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.10.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.50. Microsoft had a net margin of 40.31% and a return on equity of 31.98%. The firm had revenue of $90.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $87.62 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.65 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 19th will be issued a $0.98 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 19th. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.27%.

Key Headlines Impacting Microsoft Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

Positive Sentiment: Expectations are building for another earnings beat, with demand for Azure cloud infrastructure, Microsoft 365 and Copilot supporting revenue and earnings growth. The key catalyst will be Microsoft’s October 28 report, where investors will look for accelerating Azure growth and evidence that AI investments are translating into monetization. Microsoft Earnings Preview Positive Sentiment: Microsoft remains viewed favorably as a relatively cash-generative way to participate in the AI-cloud buildout. While Oracle’s cloud growth is faster, Microsoft’s stronger free cash flow, lower leverage and broad enterprise installed base may provide greater financial resilience as AI capital expenditures rise. Oracle Versus Microsoft Positive Sentiment: A new Boeing fleet-intelligence platform, Dataliner, is being built on Microsoft Azure AI Foundry. The partnership could add a recurring enterprise workload for Azure and demonstrate Microsoft’s ability to embed AI in industry-specific applications. Boeing and Microsoft Dataliner Positive Sentiment: Tavant’s Microsoft Fabric accelerator is now available through Microsoft Marketplace, potentially making it easier for businesses to deploy Fabric-based analytics and AI solutions across Azure. Tavant Fabric Accelerator Neutral Sentiment: GitHub Copilot is reportedly a major customer of Anthropic, highlighting demand for Microsoft’s AI developer tools but also exposing reliance on outside model providers and potential supplier concentration risk. Anthropic Revenue Concentration Negative Sentiment: Microsoft’s withdrawal as anchor tenant from a U.K. AI data-center project because of power-supply delays underscores a growing constraint: electricity and grid access may slow Azure’s AI capacity expansion and increase infrastructure costs. Microsoft Withdraws From UK AI Data Center Project Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that elevated prices for components could make Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox, Project Helix, less competitive or pressure demand. The gaming business is also undergoing restructuring, adding uncertainty beyond Azure and productivity software. Project Helix Pricing Concerns About Microsoft (Free Report)

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a global technology company that develops software, cloud services, devices and digital platforms. Its products and services are used by consumers, businesses, governments and educational institutions worldwide.

The company’s principal offerings include the Windows operating system; Microsoft 365 productivity applications such as Word, Excel, Teams and Outlook; Azure cloud computing and infrastructure services; Dynamics business applications; and enterprise security solutions.

Featured Articles Five stocks we like better than Microsoft GM Beat and Added a $20 Billion Buyback—Why Did the Stock Fall? Intercepting Growth: Karman Secures $218M Lockheed Martin Deal Tech Stocks Took a Hit—These 2 Pharma Stocks Are Near New Highs Chip Stocks Have Pulled Back—Here’s How 3 Semiconductor ETFs Stack Up for Investors Want to see what other hedge funds are holding MSFT? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report).

Receive News & Ratings for Microsoft Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Microsoft and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.

Coastal Bridge Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 75,705 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $28,240,000. Microsoft makes up about 1.7% of Coastal Bridge Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest position.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,473 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $549,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the period. Friedenthal Financial grew its holdings in Microsoft by 6.2% during the 1st quarter. Friedenthal Financial now owns 431 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $160,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. Sequent Planning LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Sequent Planning LLC now owns 3,733 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,382,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. Lee Johnson Capital Management LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 3.8% in the 2nd quarter. Lee Johnson Capital Management LLC now owns 687 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $256,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. Finally, Riverpoint Wealth Management Holdings LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Riverpoint Wealth Management Holdings LLC now owns 5,543 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,052,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In Several analysts recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Evercore raised shares of Microsoft from an “underperform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, October 12th. Melius Research set a $665.00 target price on Microsoft and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, September 10th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on Microsoft from $600.00 to $636.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 15th. Forty-three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $592.15.

View Our Latest Stock Report on MSFT Insiders Place Their Bets In other news, EVP Amy Hood sold 41,674 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $498.27, for a total value of $20,764,903.98. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 533,624 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $265,888,830.48. The trade was a 7.24% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 100,447 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,007,086.83. The trade was a 9.05% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 150,314 shares of company stock valued at $75,404,992 over the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.2% MSFT opened at $532.95 on Thursday. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $349.20 and a twelve month high of $553.72. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The company has a fifty day moving average of $507.45 and a 200-day moving average of $444.58. The stock has a market cap of $3.96 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.10.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. The business had revenue of $90.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 40.31% and a return on equity of 31.98%. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.65 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.65 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 19th. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.27%.

Key Stories Impacting Microsoft Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

Positive Sentiment: Expectations are building for another earnings beat, with demand for Azure cloud infrastructure, Microsoft 365 and Copilot supporting revenue and earnings growth. The key catalyst will be Microsoft’s October 28 report, where investors will look for accelerating Azure growth and evidence that AI investments are translating into monetization. Microsoft Earnings Preview Positive Sentiment: Microsoft remains viewed favorably as a relatively cash-generative way to participate in the AI-cloud buildout. While Oracle’s cloud growth is faster, Microsoft’s stronger free cash flow, lower leverage and broad enterprise installed base may provide greater financial resilience as AI capital expenditures rise. Oracle Versus Microsoft Positive Sentiment: A new Boeing fleet-intelligence platform, Dataliner, is being built on Microsoft Azure AI Foundry. The partnership could add a recurring enterprise workload for Azure and demonstrate Microsoft’s ability to embed AI in industry-specific applications. Boeing and Microsoft Dataliner Positive Sentiment: Tavant’s Microsoft Fabric accelerator is now available through Microsoft Marketplace, potentially making it easier for businesses to deploy Fabric-based analytics and AI solutions across Azure. Tavant Fabric Accelerator Neutral Sentiment: GitHub Copilot is reportedly a major customer of Anthropic, highlighting demand for Microsoft’s AI developer tools but also exposing reliance on outside model providers and potential supplier concentration risk. Anthropic Revenue Concentration Negative Sentiment: Microsoft’s withdrawal as anchor tenant from a U.K. AI data-center project because of power-supply delays underscores a growing constraint: electricity and grid access may slow Azure’s AI capacity expansion and increase infrastructure costs. Microsoft Withdraws From UK AI Data Center Project Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that elevated prices for components could make Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox, Project Helix, less competitive or pressure demand. The gaming business is also undergoing restructuring, adding uncertainty beyond Azure and productivity software. Project Helix Pricing Concerns Microsoft Company Profile (Free Report)

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a global technology company that develops software, cloud services, devices and digital platforms. Its products and services are used by consumers, businesses, governments and educational institutions worldwide.

The company’s principal offerings include the Windows operating system; Microsoft 365 productivity applications such as Word, Excel, Teams and Outlook; Azure cloud computing and infrastructure services; Dynamics business applications; and enterprise security solutions.

Featured Articles Five stocks we like better than Microsoft GM Beat and Added a $20 Billion Buyback—Why Did the Stock Fall? Intercepting Growth: Karman Secures $218M Lockheed Martin Deal Tech Stocks Took a Hit—These 2 Pharma Stocks Are Near New Highs Chip Stocks Have Pulled Back—Here’s How 3 Semiconductor ETFs Stack Up for Investors Want to see what other hedge funds are holding MSFT? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report).

Receive News & Ratings for Microsoft Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Microsoft and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.

FSA Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 9,547 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $3,570,000. Microsoft accounts for 1.5% of FSA Advisors Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest holding.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management increased its position in Microsoft by 4.0% during the second quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 229,490 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $85,604,000 after purchasing an additional 8,773 shares during the last quarter. D.B. Root & Company LLC purchased a new position in Microsoft during the second quarter worth about $3,652,000. Markel Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Markel Group Inc. now owns 537,630 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $199,014,000 after purchasing an additional 1,950 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 8.4% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 6,921,677 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,562,197,000 after purchasing an additional 537,634 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 138.8% in the 1st quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 1,356,359 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $502,077,000 after buying an additional 788,297 shares during the period. 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: Expectations are building for another earnings beat, with demand for Azure cloud infrastructure, Microsoft 365 and Copilot supporting revenue and earnings growth. The key catalyst will be Microsoft’s October 28 report, where investors will look for accelerating Azure growth and evidence that AI investments are translating into monetization. Microsoft Earnings Preview Positive Sentiment: Microsoft remains viewed favorably as a relatively cash-generative way to participate in the AI-cloud buildout. While Oracle’s cloud growth is faster, Microsoft’s stronger free cash flow, lower leverage and broad enterprise installed base may provide greater financial resilience as AI capital expenditures rise. Oracle Versus Microsoft Positive Sentiment: A new Boeing fleet-intelligence platform, Dataliner, is being built on Microsoft Azure AI Foundry. The partnership could add a recurring enterprise workload for Azure and demonstrate Microsoft’s ability to embed AI in industry-specific applications. Boeing and Microsoft Dataliner Positive Sentiment: Tavant’s Microsoft Fabric accelerator is now available through Microsoft Marketplace, potentially making it easier for businesses to deploy Fabric-based analytics and AI solutions across Azure. Tavant Fabric Accelerator Neutral Sentiment: GitHub Copilot is reportedly a major customer of Anthropic, highlighting demand for Microsoft’s AI developer tools but also exposing reliance on outside model providers and potential supplier concentration risk. Anthropic Revenue Concentration Negative Sentiment: Microsoft’s withdrawal as anchor tenant from a U.K. AI data-center project because of power-supply delays underscores a growing constraint: electricity and grid access may slow Azure’s AI capacity expansion and increase infrastructure costs. Microsoft Withdraws From UK AI Data Center Project Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that elevated prices for components could make Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox, Project Helix, less competitive or pressure demand. The gaming business is also undergoing restructuring, adding uncertainty beyond Azure and productivity software. Project Helix Pricing Concerns Insider Transactions at Microsoft In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,810 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 42,677 shares in the company, valued at $21,188,276.96. This represents a 10.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 86,525 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $501.46, for a total value of $43,388,826.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 486,763 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $244,092,173.98. This represents a 15.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 150,314 shares of company stock worth $75,404,992 in the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders. Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MSFT. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and set a $550.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $586.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Microsoft from $515.00 to $570.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 22nd. Needham & Company LLC initiated coverage on Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, September 23rd. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Finally, Yorkville Ives started coverage on Microsoft in a research note on Monday, October 5th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $615.00 target price for the company. Forty-three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $592.15.

Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on Microsoft

Microsoft Trading Up 0.2% Shares of MSFT stock opened at $532.95 on Thursday. Microsoft Corporation has a 1-year low of $349.20 and a 1-year high of $553.72. The firm has a market cap of $3.96 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a 50-day moving average of $507.45 and a two-hundred day moving average of $444.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 1.22.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. Microsoft had a net margin of 40.31% and a return on equity of 31.98%. The business had revenue of $90.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $87.62 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.65 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.65 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 19th will be given a $0.98 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 19th. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 20.27%.

Microsoft Company Profile (Free Report)

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a global technology company that develops software, cloud services, devices and digital platforms. Its products and services are used by consumers, businesses, governments and educational institutions worldwide.

The company’s principal offerings include the Windows operating system; Microsoft 365 productivity applications such as Word, Excel, Teams and Outlook; Azure cloud computing and infrastructure services; Dynamics business applications; and enterprise security solutions.

Featured Articles Five stocks we like better than Microsoft GM Beat and Added a $20 Billion Buyback—Why Did the Stock Fall? Intercepting Growth: Karman Secures $218M Lockheed Martin Deal Tech Stocks Took a Hit—These 2 Pharma Stocks Are Near New Highs Chip Stocks Have Pulled Back—Here’s How 3 Semiconductor ETFs Stack Up for Investors Want to see what other hedge funds are holding MSFT? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report).

Receive News & Ratings for Microsoft Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Microsoft and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.

Dearborn Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 202,781 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $75,641,000. Microsoft accounts for 3.5% of Dearborn Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 1.7% in the second quarter. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,473 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $549,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Friedenthal Financial grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 6.2% in the first quarter. Friedenthal Financial now owns 431 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $160,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. Sequent Planning LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% in the first quarter. Sequent Planning LLC now owns 3,733 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,382,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the period. Lee Johnson Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 3.8% in the second quarter. Lee Johnson Capital Management LLC now owns 687 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $256,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the period. Finally, Riverpoint Wealth Management Holdings LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Riverpoint Wealth Management Holdings LLC now owns 5,543 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,052,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Microsoft Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

Positive Sentiment: Expectations are building for another earnings beat, with demand for Azure cloud infrastructure, Microsoft 365 and Copilot supporting revenue and earnings growth. The key catalyst will be Microsoft’s October 28 report, where investors will look for accelerating Azure growth and evidence that AI investments are translating into monetization. Microsoft Earnings Preview Positive Sentiment: Microsoft remains viewed favorably as a relatively cash-generative way to participate in the AI-cloud buildout. While Oracle’s cloud growth is faster, Microsoft’s stronger free cash flow, lower leverage and broad enterprise installed base may provide greater financial resilience as AI capital expenditures rise. Oracle Versus Microsoft Positive Sentiment: A new Boeing fleet-intelligence platform, Dataliner, is being built on Microsoft Azure AI Foundry. The partnership could add a recurring enterprise workload for Azure and demonstrate Microsoft’s ability to embed AI in industry-specific applications. Boeing and Microsoft Dataliner Positive Sentiment: Tavant’s Microsoft Fabric accelerator is now available through Microsoft Marketplace, potentially making it easier for businesses to deploy Fabric-based analytics and AI solutions across Azure. Tavant Fabric Accelerator Neutral Sentiment: GitHub Copilot is reportedly a major customer of Anthropic, highlighting demand for Microsoft’s AI developer tools but also exposing reliance on outside model providers and potential supplier concentration risk. Anthropic Revenue Concentration Negative Sentiment: Microsoft’s withdrawal as anchor tenant from a U.K. AI data-center project because of power-supply delays underscores a growing constraint: electricity and grid access may slow Azure’s AI capacity expansion and increase infrastructure costs. Microsoft Withdraws From UK AI Data Center Project Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that elevated prices for components could make Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox, Project Helix, less competitive or pressure demand. The gaming business is also undergoing restructuring, adding uncertainty beyond Azure and productivity software. Project Helix Pricing Concerns Analyst Ratings Changes A number of research firms have issued reports on MSFT. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday. Raymond James Financial cut Microsoft from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $660.00 to $662.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday. CLSA reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $512.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 13th. Forty-three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $592.15. Check Out Our Latest Report on Microsoft

Insider Transactions at Microsoft In related news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $487.89, for a total value of $4,878,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 100,447 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $49,007,086.83. This trade represents a 9.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Amy Hood sold 41,674 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $498.27, for a total value of $20,764,903.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 533,624 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $265,888,830.48. This trade represents a 7.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 150,314 shares of company stock valued at $75,404,992. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.2% Shares of MSFT opened at $532.95 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $507.45 and its 200 day moving average price is $444.58. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.96 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.10. Microsoft Corporation has a 12-month low of $349.20 and a 12-month high of $553.72.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.98% and a net margin of 40.31%. The company had revenue of $90.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $87.62 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.65 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 19th will be paid a $0.98 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 19th. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.27%.

Microsoft Company Profile (Free Report)

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a global technology company that develops software, cloud services, devices and digital platforms. Its products and services are used by consumers, businesses, governments and educational institutions worldwide.

The company’s principal offerings include the Windows operating system; Microsoft 365 productivity applications such as Word, Excel, Teams and Outlook; Azure cloud computing and infrastructure services; Dynamics business applications; and enterprise security solutions.

Read More Five stocks we like better than Microsoft GM Beat and Added a $20 Billion Buyback—Why Did the Stock Fall? Intercepting Growth: Karman Secures $218M Lockheed Martin Deal Tech Stocks Took a Hit—These 2 Pharma Stocks Are Near New Highs Chip Stocks Have Pulled Back—Here’s How 3 Semiconductor ETFs Stack Up for Investors Want to see what other hedge funds are holding MSFT? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report).

Receive News & Ratings for Microsoft Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Microsoft and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.

Equitable Holdings Inc. purchased a new stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 392,554 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $146,430,000. Microsoft makes up approximately 0.9% of Equitable Holdings Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 21st biggest holding.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management grew its holdings in Microsoft by 4.0% during the second quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 229,490 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $85,604,000 after purchasing an additional 8,773 shares during the period. D.B. Root & Company LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft in the second quarter valued at approximately $3,652,000. Markel Group Inc. raised its stake in Microsoft by 0.4% in the first quarter. Markel Group Inc. now owns 537,630 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $199,014,000 after buying an additional 1,950 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 8.4% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 6,921,677 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,562,197,000 after buying an additional 537,634 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 138.8% during the 1st quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 1,356,359 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $502,077,000 after acquiring an additional 788,297 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth MSFT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their target price on Microsoft from $522.00 to $608.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 21st. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $615.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 5th. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $586.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday. 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. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $530.00 to $575.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 22nd. Forty-three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $592.15.

Get Our Latest Report on Microsoft Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 86,525 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $501.46, for a total transaction of $43,388,826.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 486,763 shares in the company, valued at $244,092,173.98. This represents a 15.09% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, 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 transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 42,677 shares in the company, valued at $21,188,276.96. This represents a 10.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 150,314 shares of company stock worth $75,404,992. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Stock Performance Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $532.95 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 1.22. The firm has a market cap of $3.96 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.10. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $507.45 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $444.58. Microsoft Corporation has a one year low of $349.20 and a one year high of $553.72.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. The company had revenue of $90.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.98% and a net margin of 40.31%. The company’s revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.65 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.65 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 19th will be paid a $0.98 dividend. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 19th. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 20.27%.

Microsoft News Summary Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

Positive Sentiment: Expectations are building for another earnings beat, with demand for Azure cloud infrastructure, Microsoft 365 and Copilot supporting revenue and earnings growth. The key catalyst will be Microsoft’s October 28 report, where investors will look for accelerating Azure growth and evidence that AI investments are translating into monetization. Microsoft Earnings Preview Positive Sentiment: Microsoft remains viewed favorably as a relatively cash-generative way to participate in the AI-cloud buildout. While Oracle’s cloud growth is faster, Microsoft’s stronger free cash flow, lower leverage and broad enterprise installed base may provide greater financial resilience as AI capital expenditures rise. Oracle Versus Microsoft Positive Sentiment: A new Boeing fleet-intelligence platform, Dataliner, is being built on Microsoft Azure AI Foundry. The partnership could add a recurring enterprise workload for Azure and demonstrate Microsoft’s ability to embed AI in industry-specific applications. Boeing and Microsoft Dataliner Positive Sentiment: Tavant’s Microsoft Fabric accelerator is now available through Microsoft Marketplace, potentially making it easier for businesses to deploy Fabric-based analytics and AI solutions across Azure. Tavant Fabric Accelerator Neutral Sentiment: GitHub Copilot is reportedly a major customer of Anthropic, highlighting demand for Microsoft’s AI developer tools but also exposing reliance on outside model providers and potential supplier concentration risk. Anthropic Revenue Concentration Negative Sentiment: Microsoft’s withdrawal as anchor tenant from a U.K. AI data-center project because of power-supply delays underscores a growing constraint: electricity and grid access may slow Azure’s AI capacity expansion and increase infrastructure costs. Microsoft Withdraws From UK AI Data Center Project Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that elevated prices for components could make Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox, Project Helix, less competitive or pressure demand. The gaming business is also undergoing restructuring, adding uncertainty beyond Azure and productivity software. Project Helix Pricing Concerns Microsoft Company Profile (Free Report)

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a global technology company that develops software, cloud services, devices and digital platforms. Its products and services are used by consumers, businesses, governments and educational institutions worldwide.

The company’s principal offerings include the Windows operating system; Microsoft 365 productivity applications such as Word, Excel, Teams and Outlook; Azure cloud computing and infrastructure services; Dynamics business applications; and enterprise security solutions.

Read More Five stocks we like better than Microsoft GM Beat and Added a $20 Billion Buyback—Why Did the Stock Fall? Intercepting Growth: Karman Secures $218M Lockheed Martin Deal Tech Stocks Took a Hit—These 2 Pharma Stocks Are Near New Highs Chip Stocks Have Pulled Back—Here’s How 3 Semiconductor ETFs Stack Up for Investors Want to see what other hedge funds are holding MSFT? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report).

Receive News & Ratings for Microsoft Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Microsoft and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.

Bank OZK bought a new stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 28,250 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $10,538,000. Microsoft accounts for about 3.1% of Bank OZK’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Frankly Finances LLC bought a new position in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth $35,000. Bard Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the second quarter worth $37,000. PMV Capital Advisers LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft in the second quarter valued at $38,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Microsoft by 37.4% in the second quarter. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. now owns 125 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Persistent Asset Partners Ltd bought a new stake in Microsoft in the second quarter valued at $60,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Microsoft In other news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 100,447 shares in the company, valued at $49,007,086.83. This trade represents a 9.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,810 shares of the business’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 value of $2,388,068.80. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 42,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,188,276.96. The trade was a 10.13% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 150,314 shares of company stock valued at $75,404,992. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on MSFT shares. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, September 10th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $700.00 to $725.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 1st. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 23rd. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $440.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, September 21st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $660.00 to $662.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday. Forty-three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $592.15. View Our Latest Stock Report on Microsoft

Key Headlines Impacting Microsoft Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

Positive Sentiment: Expectations are building for another earnings beat, with demand for Azure cloud infrastructure, Microsoft 365 and Copilot supporting revenue and earnings growth. The key catalyst will be Microsoft’s October 28 report, where investors will look for accelerating Azure growth and evidence that AI investments are translating into monetization. Microsoft Earnings Preview Positive Sentiment: Microsoft remains viewed favorably as a relatively cash-generative way to participate in the AI-cloud buildout. While Oracle’s cloud growth is faster, Microsoft’s stronger free cash flow, lower leverage and broad enterprise installed base may provide greater financial resilience as AI capital expenditures rise. Oracle Versus Microsoft Positive Sentiment: A new Boeing fleet-intelligence platform, Dataliner, is being built on Microsoft Azure AI Foundry. The partnership could add a recurring enterprise workload for Azure and demonstrate Microsoft’s ability to embed AI in industry-specific applications. Boeing and Microsoft Dataliner Positive Sentiment: Tavant’s Microsoft Fabric accelerator is now available through Microsoft Marketplace, potentially making it easier for businesses to deploy Fabric-based analytics and AI solutions across Azure. Tavant Fabric Accelerator Neutral Sentiment: GitHub Copilot is reportedly a major customer of Anthropic, highlighting demand for Microsoft’s AI developer tools but also exposing reliance on outside model providers and potential supplier concentration risk. Anthropic Revenue Concentration Negative Sentiment: Microsoft’s withdrawal as anchor tenant from a U.K. AI data-center project because of power-supply delays underscores a growing constraint: electricity and grid access may slow Azure’s AI capacity expansion and increase infrastructure costs. Microsoft Withdraws From UK AI Data Center Project Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that elevated prices for components could make Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox, Project Helix, less competitive or pressure demand. The gaming business is also undergoing restructuring, adding uncertainty beyond Azure and productivity software. Project Helix Pricing Concerns Microsoft Stock Performance MSFT stock opened at $532.95 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.96 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.67, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $507.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $444.58. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $349.20 and a fifty-two week high of $553.72. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. The firm had revenue of $90.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 40.31% and a return on equity of 31.98%. Microsoft’s revenue was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.65 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 19th will be paid a $0.98 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 19th. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.27%.

About Microsoft (Free Report)

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a global technology company that develops software, cloud services, devices and digital platforms. Its products and services are used by consumers, businesses, governments and educational institutions worldwide.

The company’s principal offerings include the Windows operating system; Microsoft 365 productivity applications such as Word, Excel, Teams and Outlook; Azure cloud computing and infrastructure services; Dynamics business applications; and enterprise security solutions.

Read More Five stocks we like better than Microsoft GM Beat and Added a $20 Billion Buyback—Why Did the Stock Fall? Intercepting Growth: Karman Secures $218M Lockheed Martin Deal Tech Stocks Took a Hit—These 2 Pharma Stocks Are Near New Highs Chip Stocks Have Pulled Back—Here’s How 3 Semiconductor ETFs Stack Up for Investors Want to see what other hedge funds are holding MSFT? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report).

Receive News & Ratings for Microsoft Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Microsoft and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.

Microsoft keeps raising its dividend, growing Azure at record pace, and pouring tens of billions into data centers every quarter. The question is whether that spending builds an unbreakable lead or sets up a very expensive stumble.

DARMSTADT, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Merck, a leading science and technology company, today announced a collaboration with NVIDIA Corporation (Santa Clara, California, USA), Microsoft Corporation (Redmond, Washington, USA) and Dawn Health A/S (Copenhagen, Denmark) to build an innovative model for Patient Support Programs (PSPs). The four-way collaboration brings together pharmaceutical and clinical expertise, enterprise technology, AI services and digital health product design, with the shared.

by Todd Bishop on

Stripe co-founder and President John Collison has been nominated to join Microsoft’s board of directors. (Stripe Photo) When Stripe co-founder John Collison interviewed Satya Nadella on his company’s podcast last fall, he asked the Microsoft CEO for advice on building a platform business. Collison will soon get to see how Microsoft does it up close.

Collison, 36, the co-founder and president of the Bay Area-based payments platform, has been nominated to Microsoft’s board, the tech giant disclosed Wednesday in its annual proxy statement.

He would fill one of two board seats opening up at Microsoft’s Dec. 8 annual meeting. LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman said in June that he would leave, and the proxy reveals that Disney CFO Hugh Johnston, who chairs the board’s audit committee, is not seeking re-election either. Both have served on the board since 2017.

The proxy also notes that former EY CEO Carmine Di Sibio, appointed to the board in May, will stand for election by shareholders for the first time.

Microsoft’s board currently has 13 members, including Di Sibio. With Hoffman and Johnston leaving and Collison joining, it will go back to 12, the same number it had before Di Sibio joined in May.

Microsoft says Collison “brings extensive entrepreneurial and operational experience, along with deep expertise in technology.” He started Stripe with his brother, Patrick, in 2010, and businesses using Stripe processed $1.9 trillion in payments in 2025. Collison does not sit on any other public company board.

The board determined that he is independent, after considering ordinary business dealings between Microsoft and companies tied to its directors. The proxy doesn’t mention any business between Microsoft and Stripe, but the two companies already work together.

Stripe helps power Copilot Checkout, which Microsoft launched in January to let U.S. users of its AI assistant buy from Etsy sellers and other retailers without leaving the chat. In 2023, the companies teamed up to let businesses take card payments for paid events in Microsoft Teams.

The companies’ work together came up in the November episode of Stripe’s “Cheeky Pint” podcast. Collison said Stripe was building a platform business in agentic commerce, in which AI agents shop and pay on behalf of people, and asked Nadella what advice he had for a company building in such an early market.

Nadella said the key would be making it simple for small merchants to sell through AI agents, without asking them to set up servers or adopt a string of new technical protocols themselves.

The relationship goes back years. Nadella said he first visited Stripe’s San Francisco office when he was running Microsoft’s cloud business, before he became CEO.

He said Stripe reminded Microsoft of something it had once been good at, “following the developer, being where the startups are,” and said that thinking “led me even to GitHub,” the code-sharing platform Microsoft acquired in 2018 for $7.5 billion.

If Microsoft doesn't report accelerating Azure growth next week, its stock could be in trouble. Both of Microsoft's major competitors have reported accelerating cloud revenue growth recently.

Microsoft's stock barely moved over the past year while its earnings surged, and that gap between price and profit is exactly what makes one investor keep reaching for the buy button despite a capital spending bill that could shake the

The market expects Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) to deliver a year-over-year increase in earnings on higher revenues when it reports results for the quarter ended September 2026. This widely-known consensus outlook is important in assessing the company's earnings picture, but a powerful factor that might influence its near-term stock price is how the actual results compare to these estimates.

The stock might move higher if these key numbers top expectations in the upcoming earnings report, which is expected to be released on October 28. On the other hand, if they miss, the stock may move lower.

While the sustainability of the immediate price change and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's discussion of business conditions on the earnings call, it's worth handicapping the probability of a positive EPS surprise.

Zacks Consensus EstimateThis software maker is expected to post quarterly earnings of $4.71 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +14%.

Revenues are expected to be $90.59 billion, up 16.6% from the year-ago quarter.

Estimate Revisions TrendThe consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has been revised 0.35% higher over the last 30 days to the current level. This is essentially a reflection of how the covering analysts have collectively reassessed their initial estimates over this period.

Investors should keep in mind that an aggregate change may not always reflect the direction of estimate revisions by each of the covering analysts.

Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Earnings WhisperEstimate revisions ahead of a company's earnings release offer clues to the business conditions for the period whose results are coming out. Our proprietary surprise prediction model -- the Zacks Earnings ESP (Expected Surprise Prediction) -- has this insight at its core.

The Zacks Earnings ESP compares the Most Accurate Estimate to the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter; the Most Accurate Estimate is a more recent version of the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. The idea here is that analysts revising their estimates right before an earnings release have the latest information, which could potentially be more accurate than what they and others contributing to the consensus had predicted earlier.

Thus, a positive or negative Earnings ESP reading theoretically indicates the likely deviation of the actual earnings from the consensus estimate. However, the model's predictive power is significant for positive ESP readings only.

A positive Earnings ESP is a strong predictor of an earnings beat, particularly when combined with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold). Our research shows that stocks with this combination produce a positive surprise nearly 70% of the time, and a solid Zacks Rank actually increases the predictive power of Earnings ESP.

Please note that a negative Earnings ESP reading is not indicative of an earnings miss. Our research shows that it is difficult to predict an earnings beat with any degree of confidence for stocks with negative Earnings ESP readings and/or Zacks Rank of 4 (Sell) or 5 (Strong Sell).

How Have the Numbers Shaped Up for Microsoft?For Microsoft, the Most Accurate Estimate is higher than the Zacks Consensus Estimate, suggesting that analysts have recently become bullish on the company's earnings prospects. This has resulted in an Earnings ESP of +0.29%.

On the other hand, the stock currently carries a Zacks Rank of #3.

So, this combination indicates that Microsoft will most likely beat the consensus EPS estimate.

Does Earnings Surprise History Hold Any Clue?Analysts often consider to what extent a company has been able to match consensus estimates in the past while calculating their estimates for its future earnings. So, it's worth taking a look at the surprise history for gauging its influence on the upcoming number.

For the last reported quarter, it was expected that Microsoft would post earnings of $4.21 per share when it actually produced earnings of $4.74, delivering a surprise of +12.59%.

Over the last four quarters, the company has beaten consensus EPS estimates four times.

Bottom LineAn earnings beat or miss may not be the sole basis for a stock moving higher or lower. Many stocks end up losing ground despite an earnings beat due to other factors that disappoint investors. Similarly, unforeseen catalysts help a number of stocks gain despite an earnings miss.

That said, betting on stocks that are expected to beat earnings expectations does increase the odds of success. This is why it's worth checking a company's Earnings ESP and Zacks Rank ahead of its quarterly release. Make sure to utilize our Earnings ESP Filter to uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they've reported.

Microsoft appears a compelling earnings-beat candidate. However, investors should pay attention to other factors too for betting on this stock or staying away from it ahead of its earnings release.

Expected Results of an Industry PlayerAmong the stocks in the Zacks Computer - Software industry, Manhattan Associates (MANH - Free Report) , is soon expected to post earnings of $1.46 per share for the quarter ended September 2026. This estimate indicates a year-over-year change of +7.4%. This quarter's revenue is expected to be $296.82 million, up 7.6% from the year-ago quarter.

The consensus EPS estimate for Manhattan Associates has been revised 0.3% higher over the last 30 days to the current level. However, a higher Most Accurate Estimate has resulted in an Earnings ESP of +1.65%.

When combined with a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold), this Earnings ESP indicates that Manhattan Associates will most likely beat the consensus EPS estimate. The company beat consensus EPS estimates in each of the trailing four quarters.

Stay on top of upcoming earnings announcements with the Zacks Earnings Calendar.

2.77K Followers

Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.