Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Trading Down 2.2% - What's Next?

Key Points

• Microsoft's stock price fell 2.2% to $510.96, with trading volume increasing by 7% compared to its average daily volume.
• Recent analyst ratings have been positive, with DA Davidson and Oppenheimer both raising Microsoft's price targets to $650.00 and $630.00, respectively, while maintaining "buy" and "outperform" ratings.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.91 per share, an increase from the previous $0.83, with the payout set for December 11th.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report)'s stock price dropped 2.2% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $509.63 and last traded at $510.96. Approximately 23,506,893 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 7% from the average daily volume of 21,928,529 shares. The stock had previously closed at $522.40.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the subject of several recent research reports. DA Davidson increased their price target on Microsoft from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Microsoft from $600.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings reissued a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on Microsoft from $540.00 to $637.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a "buy" rating and set a $640.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $618.47.

Microsoft Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $3.80 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 1.03. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $513.39 and a 200-day moving average of $470.36. The company has a quick ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.35 by $0.30. The firm had revenue of $76.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $73.79 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.44% and a net margin of 36.15%.Microsoft's revenue was up 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.95 earnings per share. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.91 per share. This is a positive change from Microsoft's previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.69%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $504.78, for a total transaction of $75,315,699.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 790,852 shares of the company's stock, valued at $399,206,272.56. The trade was a 15.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $527.32, for a total value of $2,557,502.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 39,111 shares of the company's stock, valued at $20,624,012.52. This trade represents a 11.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Navigoe LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 13.3% during the third quarter. Navigoe LLC now owns 357 shares of the software giant's stock worth $184,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Warburton Capital Management LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Warburton Capital Management LLC now owns 4,802 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $2,495,000 after acquiring an additional 108 shares during the period. Spinnaker Investment Group LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Spinnaker Investment Group LLC now owns 65,121 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $33,730,000 after acquiring an additional 1,054 shares during the period. DKM Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in Microsoft by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. DKM Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,304 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $675,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Finally, Arlington Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 9.8% in the 3rd quarter. Arlington Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,005 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $3,628,000 after acquiring an additional 624 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company's stock.

About Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation develops and supports software, services, devices and solutions worldwide. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers office, exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft viva, and Microsoft 365 copilot; and office consumer services, such as Microsoft 365 consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other office services.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.