Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Receives "Market Outperform" Rating from Citizens Jmp

Key Points

• Citizens JMP reaffirmed its “Market Outperform” rating on Microsoft and set a $550 price target, implying 8.82% upside from the prior close.
• Analyst sentiment remains broadly positive: 42 analysts rate Microsoft a Buy and five a Hold, resulting in a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and average target price of $564.27.
• Microsoft recently exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $4.74 in EPS and $90.01 billion in revenue, while revenue grew 17.7% year over year; however, insiders sold about $50.7 million of stock over the past three months.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "market outperform" rating reissued by Citizens Jmp in a report released on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $550.00 price objective on the software giant's stock. Citizens Jmp's price target would indicate a potential upside of 8.82% from the stock's previous close.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. CLSA restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, July 30th. UBS Group set a $525.00 price objective on Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $490.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. DA Davidson reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $550.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Citigroup reissued a "market outperform" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, August 31st. Forty-two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $564.27.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $505.41 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.23. Microsoft has a 52-week low of $349.20 and a 52-week high of $553.72. The company has a fifty day moving average of $458.23 and a 200-day moving average of $420.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.75 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.11.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results 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 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 quarter last year, the company earned $3.65 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Microsoft will post 19.59 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, 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 transaction of $43,388,826.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 486,763 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $244,092,173.98. This trade represents a 15.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed 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 business's stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 100,447 shares in the company, valued at $49,007,086.83. The trade was a 9.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 101,335 shares of company stock worth $50,655,795 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Microsoft by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 717,942,580 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $347,211,391,000 after purchasing an additional 15,955,898 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter valued at approximately $27,338,370,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.9% in the second quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 64,375,360 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $24,013,297,000 after purchasing an additional 543,172 shares in the last quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 56,160.8% during the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 60,116,384 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $29,073,486,000 after buying an additional 60,009,531 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in Microsoft during the second quarter worth $18,306,443,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Key Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Investors are reassessing the bearish case for artificial-intelligence spending. Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, enterprise software and Copilot products are viewed as more direct paths to AI monetization than chip suppliers, supporting the shares despite a broader AI-related selloff. Microsoft stock gains amid AI selloff
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s decision to begin reporting Azure revenue, rather than only its growth rate, could improve transparency and give investors a clearer way to measure the cloud business’s scale and AI returns. Azure has reportedly surpassed $100 billion in revenue, while Copilot adoption and a large cloud backlog remain important growth catalysts. Microsoft to report Azure revenue
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst and investor commentary remains broadly constructive, citing accelerating Azure growth, more than 30 million paid Copilot seats, strong cash flow and Microsoft’s ability to fund AI infrastructure internally. Bank of America reportedly raised its price target to $600, while recent analyst coverage remains predominantly bullish. Bank of America price target upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: Industry forecasts point to strong secular demand for edge computing and green IT software, areas where Microsoft’s cloud, hybrid-cloud and enterprise platforms are positioned to participate. Edge computing market forecast
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft released a draft “Humanist AI” code of conduct requiring its models to remain under meaningful human control and avoid deceptive or harmful behavior. The move may strengthen trust and reduce regulatory risk, although a slower pace of frontier-AI development could potentially limit commercialization. Microsoft AI code of conduct
• Negative Sentiment: Investors continue to monitor Microsoft’s plans to expand data-center capacity and its heavy AI capital spending. The investments are necessary to meet demand but could pressure free cash flow and returns if revenue growth fails to keep pace. Competition from Alphabet, Amazon and other cloud providers also remains a risk. Microsoft data-center expansion

Microsoft Company Profile

Microsoft Corporation is a global technology company that develops software, cloud services, devices and digital solutions for consumers, businesses and public-sector organizations. Its products and services include the Windows operating system, Microsoft 365 productivity applications, Teams collaboration software, Dynamics business applications and Azure cloud computing services.

The company also operates LinkedIn, GitHub and Xbox, which includes gaming consoles, video games and related online services.

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