FY2025 EPS Estimates for Microsoft Lifted by Zacks Research

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) – Research analysts at Zacks Research increased their FY2025 earnings estimates for Microsoft in a research note issued on Wednesday, February 19th. Zacks Research analyst V. Sawalka now forecasts that the software giant will earn $13.03 per share for the year, up from their previous forecast of $12.83. The consensus estimate for Microsoft’s current full-year earnings is $13.07 per share. Zacks Research also issued estimates for Microsoft’s Q1 2026 earnings at $3.51 EPS, Q3 2026 earnings at $3.63 EPS, Q1 2027 earnings at $4.00 EPS and FY2027 earnings at $17.08 EPS.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on MSFT. Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $525.00 to $510.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. TD Cowen decreased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $510.96.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.3 %

MSFT stock opened at $416.13 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $425.98 and its 200-day simple moving average is $422.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.09 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.90. Microsoft has a 12 month low of $385.58 and a 12 month high of $468.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.34.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 33.36%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.93 EPS.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Microsoft by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 684,071,705 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $288,336,224,000 after purchasing an additional 10,431,988 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 168,128,024 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $70,720,874,000 after purchasing an additional 3,103,212 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $44,343,058,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Microsoft by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $35,316,535,000 after purchasing an additional 11,600,470 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 59,961,337 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $25,273,704,000 after purchasing an additional 5,370,546 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $430.87, for a total value of $1,077,175.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 53,852 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,203,211.24. The trade was a 4.44 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 8,000 shares of company stock valued at $3,493,820 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.73%.

Microsoft Company Profile

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.