Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

13 Jan 2026, 02:20 by Teresa Graham · The Cerbat Gem

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Saturday morning.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on MSFT. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $625.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, December 22nd. Rothschild Redb downgraded Microsoft from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Citigroup raised their price target on Microsoft from $682.00 to $690.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, November 19th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald set a $639.00 price objective on Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $630.37.

Read Our Latest Stock Report on Microsoft

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $477.18 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The firm has a market cap of $3.55 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.07. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $487.34 and its 200 day moving average price is $503.65. Microsoft has a 1-year low of $344.79 and a 1-year high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.65 by $0.48. The company had revenue of $77.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $75.49 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.71% and a return on equity of 32.45%. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.30 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 19th will be given a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 19th. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.89%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total transaction of $19,967,640.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 461,597 shares in the company, valued at approximately $239,402,668.08. This trade represents a 7.70% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $491.52, for a total transaction of $6,266,880.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 129,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,577,620.48. The trade was a 8.97% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 54,100 shares of company stock valued at $27,598,872 in the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Peak Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at $785,000. Kopp Family Office LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 26.0% in the 4th quarter. Kopp Family Office LLC now owns 8,470 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,096,000 after purchasing an additional 1,746 shares in the last quarter. Silverleafe Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. Silverleafe Capital Partners LLC now owns 8,571 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,145,000 after purchasing an additional 478 shares in the last quarter. Paragon Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Paragon Advisors LLC now owns 20,456 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,893,000 after purchasing an additional 1,002 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sentinel Pension Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Sentinel Pension Advisors LLC now owns 3,861 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,867,000 after buying an additional 123 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

More Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

Positive Sentiment: Goldman Sachs initiated coverage with a Buy and a $655 price target, highlighting Microsoft’s advantaged position in the AI stack and projecting material EPS upside — a major bullish institutional endorsement that can support the stock over time. Goldman Sachs coverage
Positive Sentiment: Microsoft is partnering on AI-enabled gene-therapy research with NVIDIA and academic groups — a signal that Azure + AI partnerships are expanding into new, high-value markets beyond core cloud and productivity. FT: AI breakthrough for gene therapies
Positive Sentiment: Reported December data shows a meaningful drop in MSFT short interest (about a 20% decline from mid-December), which reduces immediate downside pressure from short-covering events and indicates fewer bearish bets. (Market data)
Neutral Sentiment: Wells Fargo kept an Outperform/Overweight stance on MSFT even after trimming its target — a mixed analyst signal that supports the long-term case while recognizing near-term valuation/expense concerns. Wells Fargo note
Neutral Sentiment: Coverage pieces highlight new revenue plays (e.g., Copilot Checkout for retail and positioning as a “trusted operating system” for enterprise commerce) — product-led upside that may take time to monetize and thus is a medium-term positive but not an immediate catalyst. MarketWatch: software comeback
Negative Sentiment: President Trump said Microsoft will make “major changes” this week to ensure consumers don’t shoulder higher electricity costs from AI data centers — language that introduces political/regulatory risk and the possibility the company could face constraints or added costs related to data-center expansion. Reuters: Trump on data-center power costs
Negative Sentiment: Rumors of large layoffs (11k–22k) circulated and prompted executive pushback; even when denied, such rumors can weigh on sentiment and raise concerns about restructuring costs or execution risk. FastCompany: layoff rumors response
Negative Sentiment: Spence Asset Management reduced its MSFT stake, a small but visible instance of institutional selling that can add to intraday pressure when combined with the other negatives. TipRanks: fund cuts stake

Microsoft Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Microsoft Corporation is a global technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft develops, licenses and supports a broad range of software products, services and devices for consumers, enterprises and governments worldwide. Its operations span personal computing, productivity software, cloud infrastructure, enterprise applications, developer tools and gaming.

Microsoft’s product portfolio includes the Windows operating system and the Microsoft 365 suite of productivity and collaboration tools (Office apps, Outlook, Teams).