FY2026 Earnings Forecast for Microsoft Issued By DA Davidson

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) – Investment analysts at DA Davidson cut their FY2026 earnings estimates for Microsoft in a report issued on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson analyst G. Luria now expects that the software giant will post earnings of $14.58 per share for the year, down from their previous forecast of $15.18. DA Davidson currently has a “Neutral” rating and a $425.00 price target on the stock. The consensus estimate for Microsoft’s current full-year earnings is $12.89 per share.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.38% and a net margin of 35.43%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.93 EPS.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on MSFT. KeyCorp boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Oppenheimer downgraded Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $520.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their target price on Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $510.96.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $415.06 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.09 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.42, a PEG ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.90. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $432.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $424.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 1.29. Microsoft has a one year low of $385.58 and a one year high of $468.35.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Net Worth Advisory Group acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the third quarter worth $2,645,000. Oak Ridge Investments LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 7.6% during the 3rd quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 263,534 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $113,399,000 after acquiring an additional 18,544 shares during the period. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.6% in the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 1,975,200 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $882,816,000 after acquiring an additional 31,401 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA grew its holdings in Microsoft by 0.9% during the third quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA now owns 96,021 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $41,318,000 after acquiring an additional 880 shares during the period. Finally, Focus Financial Network Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% in the third quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 76,296 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $32,830,000 after buying an additional 1,489 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $417.00, for a total value of $10,425,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,294 shares in the company, valued at approximately $48,911,598. The trade was a 17.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total value of $1,118,525.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 49,352 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,080,578.32. This represents a 4.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892 over the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared 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 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.