What's Going On With Microsoft Stock Thursday?

Microsoft Corp MSFT shares are in the spotlight Thursday ahead of earnings. Here’s what you need to know.

What To Know: Microsoft is set to report financial results for its fiscal third quarter after the market close on Thursday. The company is expected to report earnings of $2.82 per share and revenue of $60.804 billion, according to estimates from Benzinga Pro.

Last quarter, Microsoft beat analyst estimates on the top and bottom lines as total revenues jumped 18% on a year-over-year basis.

"We’ve moved from talking about AI to applying AI at scale. By infusing AI across every layer of our tech stack, we’re winning new customers and helping drive new benefits and productivity gains across every sector," Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO of Microsoft, said at the time.

On the conference call, Microsoft guided for a roughly 1 point decrease in Microsoft Cloud gross margin percentage and for capital expenditures to increase materially on a sequential basis.

Microsoft also guided for Productivity and Business Processes revenue growth of 10% to 12%, Office 365 revenue growth of approximately 15%, Office Consumer and LinkedIn revenue growth in the mid-to-high single-digits, Intelligent Cloud revenue growth between 18% and 19% and stable revenue growth in Azure.

Microsoft shares are facing some selling pressure ahead of earnings. Investors appear to be exercising caution after Meta fell more than 15% following its earnings report late Wednesday. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) also came in at 1.6% Thursday morning, below economist expectations of 2.5%, which appears to be sparking a broader selloff in markets.

Check This Out: US Economy Grows 1.6% In Q1, Slightly Below Expectations As Price Pressures Weigh On Spending

Here’s a look at some of the recent analyst changes:

• Stifel analyst Brad Reback maintained Microsoft with a Buy and a price target of $455.

• Citigroup analyst Tyler Radke maintained Microsoft with a Buy and lowered the price target from $480 to $475.

• Wells Fargo analyst Michael Turrin maintained Microsoft with an Overweight and raised the price target from $460 to $480.

• BMO Capital analyst Keith Bachman maintained Microsoft with an Outperform and raised the price target from $455 to $465.

• Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss maintained Microsoft with an Overweight and raised the price target from $465 to $520.

MSFT Price Action: Microsoft shares were down 3.11% at $396.33 at the time of publication, according to Benzinga Pro.

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