The microsoft share price is back in the spotlight today after a major Microsoft 365 outage left Outlook, Teams and Copilot users locked out of their accounts. Investors across the UK woke up on Friday 13 November 2026 to headlines about the global disruption, and many headed straight to their brokers and search engines to check where the stock stands. The surge in interest is real: Google Trends shows UK searches for the term rising by 900% in the last two hours alone, with more than 1,000 searches in that short window. In this guide, we explain the latest microsoft share price, what the outage means for the company, why the stock has slipped this week, and what investors should watch next.

What is the Microsoft share price today? The microsoft share price closed at $523.00 on Thursday 12 November 2026, up $1.88 (0.36%) on the previous session. In pre-market trading on Friday 13 November, the stock was trading lower at $507.97 as of 4:28 AM EST, down 2.87% from the close, as investors reacted to the ongoing Microsoft 365 outage.
Microsoft Share Price Today: The Latest Figure
The stock finished Thursday’s session at $523.00, a gain of $1.88, or 0.36%, on the previous close of $521.13. During the session, the stock traded between a low of $520.00 and a high of $529.66, showing just how jumpy trading has become around the shares this week.
That closing figure only tells part of the story. Before the US market opened on Friday 13 November, the stock was already moving again. Pre-market trading put the stock at $507.97 at 4:28 AM EST, a fall of 2.87% from Thursday’s close. Pre-market prices can shift quickly and often reflect overnight news rather than the full trading day, but the drop underlines how closely investors are watching the outage.
Here are the key numbers, checked on the morning of Friday 13 November 2026:
- Last close (12 November 2026): $523.00, up 0.36% on the day
- Previous close (11 November 2026): $521.13
- Pre-market price (13 November, 4:28 AM EST): $507.97, down 2.87%
- Day range on 12 November: $520.00 to $529.66
- 52-week high: $559.15, reached on 4 November 2026
- 52-week low: $349.20, reached on 25 June 2026
- Market capitalisation: about $3.88 trillion
- Five-session return: down 5.9%
- One-month return: down 3.76%
- Year-to-date return: up 8.14%
One important note for UK readers: Microsoft shares trade on the Nasdaq stock exchange in US dollars, under the ticker symbol MSFT. When you check the microsoft share price from Britain, you are looking at a dollar figure, and your broker will convert it into pounds when you buy or sell. That means the pound-to-dollar exchange rate can add a second layer of movement on top of the share price itself.
What Is the Microsoft Share Price?
Definition: the microsoft share price is the current market value of one ordinary share in Microsoft Corporation, traded on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker MSFT. It is set by supply and demand: when more investors want to buy the shares than sell them, the price rises, and when sellers outnumber buyers, it falls.
Because Microsoft is one of the largest companies in the world, the share price is watched far beyond the investing community. Pension funds, index trackers and everyday savers all hold the stock, either directly or through funds that mirror the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100. When the microsoft share price moves sharply, it can shift the value of millions of retirement pots and ISAs in the UK without those savers ever buying a single share directly.
The Microsoft 365 Outage Explained: What Went Wrong
The reason so many people are checking the microsoft share price today is not a results announcement or a product launch. It is a major outage that began on Thursday 12 November 2026 and was still disrupting users on Friday morning.
Here is what happened, based on Microsoft’s own service updates and reporting from The Hindu, Rappler and other outlets on 13 November:
- When it started: the disruption began on the evening of Thursday 12 November, when users first found they could not open their Exchange Online mailboxes in Outlook.
- What went down: Outlook on the web, the desktop app and mobile mail apps struggled to reach mailboxes. Microsoft Teams features that rely on Outlook, such as scheduling meetings and viewing calendars, were also affected, along with the Copilot AI assistant and other Microsoft 365 services.
- How big it was: outage tracker Downdetector logged roughly 130,000 Outlook problem reports at the peak, shortly after 1pm Eastern Time on Thursday. Reports spread to 74 countries and territories within an hour, across the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa.
- What Microsoft said: the company said part of its infrastructure was experiencing elevated load across multiple regions, and that a large number of its servers had unexpectedly become unavailable after failing automated health checks. The extra load was not caused by a surge in user traffic.
- Was it a cyberattack? Microsoft said it was “not aware of any malicious activity” behind the incident, and added that full details of the root cause would be shared in a post-incident report once the problem was fixed.
- Is it fixed? Not fully. Microsoft reported only limited or partial recovery in the regions where it applied fixes, and said some adjustments had not worked as expected. As of Friday morning, the company had given no time for full restoration, and its service health page still showed “service degradation” for Microsoft 365.
Microsoft is tracking the incident under two reference numbers: EX1550543 for the Exchange Online problem and MO1550821 for the wider Microsoft 365 incident. IT administrators can follow both in the Microsoft 365 admin centre, while the public status page at status.cloud.microsoft carries updates for everyone else.
For investors, that question matters. Microsoft 365 is a subscription business built on trust. Companies pay per user, per month, for email and workplace tools they expect to work every working day. A long outage does not immediately show up in the microsoft share price as lost revenue, since subscriptions keep being billed, but it can damage confidence, slow new deals and give rivals such as Google Workspace an opening to pitch unhappy customers.
Why the Microsoft Share Price Has Slipped This Week
The microsoft share price did not start falling because of the outage alone. The stock was already under pressure before Thursday evening, and the outage has added fresh worries on top of an existing slide.
Look at the recent sessions. The microsoft share price closed at $533.16 on Tuesday 10 November, then fell to $521.13 on Wednesday 11 November, a drop of more than 2%. Thursday brought a small recovery to $523.00, but the five-session return still stands at a fall of 5.9%. The one-month return is down 3.76%. In other words, the shares have been drifting lower for days, and the outage arrived at an already nervous moment.
Several forces are pulling at the microsoft share price right now:
- The outage itself: a global failure of Outlook and Teams is embarrassing for a company that sells reliability, and it arrived just as investors were already asking questions about Microsoft’s spending.
- AI spending worries: Microsoft reported capital expenditure of $45.2 billion in its latest quarter, and it expects to spend more than $50 billion in the current quarter. Investors love Azure’s growth, but they are watching the size of the bill very closely.
- Capacity constraints: Microsoft has said demand for its cloud and AI services exceeds the capacity it can supply, with some third-party deliveries delayed. That is a good problem in one sense, because demand is strong, but it limits how fast revenue can grow.
- Profit-taking near the highs: the microsoft share price touched a 52-week high of $559.15 on 4 November. When a stock sets a fresh high, some investors lock in gains, which can push the price lower in the days that follow.
- Wider market mood: big technology shares have been choppy in recent weeks as investors weigh interest rates, AI valuations and the strength of the US economy. Microsoft rarely escapes a broad tech sell-off.
None of this means the company’s underlying business is in trouble. As the next section shows, Microsoft’s most recent results were strong. But the share price reflects what investors expect to happen next, not just what has already happened, and right now expectations are being tested by the outage, the spending bill and the sheer scale of the AI build-out.
Microsoft’s Latest Results: Azure Growth Powers the Story
To understand where the shares might go from here, it helps to look at the numbers Microsoft reported only a fortnight ago. On 28 October 2026, the company published results for the first quarter of its 2027 financial year, covering the three months to 30 September 2026, and the figures were impressive.
- Revenue: $92.3 billion, up 19% year on year, beating analyst estimates
- Azure revenue: $33.2 billion, up 48% year on year, ahead of the company’s own guidance of 44% to 45%
- Microsoft Cloud revenue: $63.9 billion, up 30% year on year
- Operating income: $45.9 billion, up 21%
- Net income: $36.6 billion, up 32%
- Non-GAAP earnings per share: $4.89, up 18%
Azure is the engine of the story. The cloud platform, which rents computing power and AI models to other companies, grew 48% and now brings in more than a third of Microsoft’s total revenue. The growth was driven by strong demand for AI workloads and by Microsoft’s Foundry platform, where revenue more than tripled year on year. Azure alone added about $10.8 billion of extra revenue compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
Microsoft also gave guidance for the current quarter that pleased investors. It expects total revenue of between $96 billion and $97.1 billion for the second quarter of fiscal 2027, which would be another quarterly record, with Azure growth of 49% to 50% in constant currency. That guidance is one reason the microsoft share price reached its 52-week high of $559.15 on 4 November, a week after the results.
How to Check and Buy Microsoft Shares from the UK
If the outage has prompted you to look at the microsoft share price for the first time, here is how UK investors typically follow and buy the stock. This is general information only, not financial advice, and you should always do your own research before investing.
- Check the live price. Use a reputable market data source such as Yahoo Finance, the London Stock Exchange’s international quotes, your broker’s app or Nasdaq’s own website. Make sure the figure you see is live, not delayed, and note the time it was quoted, because the microsoft share price moves constantly during US trading hours.
- Understand the trading hours. The Nasdaq market opens at 9:30am and closes at 4:00pm Eastern Time, which is 2:30pm to 9:00pm in the UK during standard time. Outside those hours, pre-market and after-hours trading still takes place, but prices can be more volatile and volumes are lower.
- Pick a broker or investment platform. UK investors usually buy US shares through an online broker, a trading app or a stocks and shares ISA provider. Compare dealing charges, foreign exchange fees and whether the platform offers fractional shares.
- Decide how much to invest. Never invest money you cannot afford to lose, and consider whether a single share, a fractional share or a diversified fund that holds Microsoft suits your goals better. Many UK investors get exposure to Microsoft through an S&P 500 or Nasdaq 100 tracker fund instead of buying the shares directly.
- Consider the currency. Because the microsoft share price is quoted in US dollars, your broker will convert your pounds when you buy and again when you sell. A weaker pound can boost the sterling value of your holding, while a stronger pound can reduce it, even if the dollar price does not move.
- Place your order carefully. You can usually choose a market order, which buys at the current price, or a limit order, which only buys if the price falls to a level you set. Limit orders give you more control, especially on a volatile day like today.
- Keep an eye on the news. Set up price alerts and follow Microsoft’s results, product announcements and service status. As this week shows, an outage or an earnings report can move the microsoft share price sharply in a matter of hours.
Remember that investing in individual shares carries risk. The microsoft share price can fall as well as rise, and past performance is no guarantee of future returns. If you are unsure, consider speaking to an independent financial adviser before making a decision.
What Investors Are Watching Next
The next few days will be telling for the microsoft share price. Here are the five things investors and analysts will be watching most closely:
- Full recovery from the outage: the first question is simple: when will Outlook, Teams and Copilot be fully back to normal? Microsoft has given no timeline, so every update on incidents EX1550543 and MO1550821 will be read carefully. A quick, clean fix would calm nerves; a drawn-out recovery would not.
- The post-incident report: Microsoft has promised a full account of the root cause once the problem is fixed. Investors will want to know whether this was a one-off failure or a sign of deeper strain in the infrastructure that supports Microsoft 365.
- Customer reaction: watch for signs that big business customers are unhappy. If large companies start talking publicly about switching to rival workplace software, that would be a bigger worry for the microsoft share price than a single day’s disruption.
- The next results: Microsoft’s second-quarter results, expected in late January 2027, will show whether Azure growth really does accelerate to 49% to 50% as guided, and whether the heavy capital spending is translating into revenue.
- The wider tech market: Microsoft does not trade in isolation. If US technology shares recover their confidence, the microsoft share price is likely to benefit. If the sell-off in AI-related stocks deepens, even strong results may not be enough to lift the shares straight away.
For long-term investors, the key question is whether this week changes the investment case. On one side of the argument, Microsoft has just reported record revenue of $92.3 billion, Azure is growing at 48%, and guidance points to another record quarter. On the other side, the company is spending tens of billions of dollars a quarter, its cloud capacity cannot keep up with demand, and its flagship workplace software has now suffered two major outages in a single year.
For a sense of how other big technology names are faring, see our coverage of the Amazon share price, and for a reminder that even the biggest cloud providers can suffer major failures, read our report on the Google Cloud outage in the UK.
Conclusion
The microsoft share price closed at $523.00 on Thursday 12 November 2026, up 0.36% on the day, but pre-market trading on Friday put it at $507.97 as investors digested the global Microsoft 365 outage. The stock is down 5.9% over five sessions and sits about 6.5% below its 52-week high of $559.15, yet it remains up 8.14% so far this year, with a market value of roughly $3.88 trillion behind it.
The outage is a serious embarrassment for Microsoft, and the company has questions to answer about why so many of its servers became unavailable at once. But it is worth keeping the disruption in perspective: the business behind the microsoft share price has just delivered record revenue of $92.3 billion, Azure is growing at 48%, and management expects another record quarter. Whether the shares bounce back quickly will depend on how fast the service is fully restored and whether customers stay loyal.
Keep checking the live microsoft share price before you make any decision, bookmark this page for the latest updates, and remember that share prices can fall as well as rise. If this guide helped you make sense of a confusing day in the markets, share it with anyone else who woke up to a broken inbox and a moving share price.
What is the Microsoft share price today?
The Microsoft share price closed at $523.00 on Thursday 12 November 2026, up $1.88 (0.36%) on the previous session. In pre-market trading on Friday 13 November, the stock was at $507.97 as of 4:28 AM EST, down 2.87% from the close, as investors reacted to the Microsoft 365 outage. Share prices move constantly during trading hours, so check a live quote before acting.
Why is the Microsoft share price falling?
The Microsoft share price is down 5.9% over the last five sessions. The stock was already slipping before the outage, after touching a 52-week high of $559.15 on 4 November 2026. The global Microsoft 365 outage that began on 12 November, plus investor worries about the scale of Microsoft’s AI spending, have added to the pressure.
What caused the Microsoft outage on 12 November 2026?
Microsoft said a large number of its servers unexpectedly became unavailable after failing automated health checks, which put elevated load on the rest of its infrastructure. Outlook, Teams and Copilot were affected. Microsoft said it was not aware of any malicious activity behind the incident and will publish a full post-incident report once the problem is fixed.
Is Microsoft still a good investment after the outage?
That depends on your own goals and attitude to risk, and this article is not financial advice. Microsoft has just reported record quarterly revenue of $92.3 billion, with Azure growing 48%, and it expects another record quarter. Against that, the company is spending more than $50 billion a quarter on AI infrastructure and its workplace software has now suffered two major outages in 2026.
How can I buy Microsoft shares from the UK?
UK investors can buy Microsoft shares through an online broker, a trading app or a stocks and shares ISA provider. The shares trade on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker MSFT and are priced in US dollars, so your broker will convert pounds to dollars when you buy. Compare dealing charges and foreign exchange fees before choosing a platform, and consider whether a diversified fund holding Microsoft suits you better.
What is Microsoft’s market value?
Microsoft’s market capitalisation is about $3.88 trillion, making it one of the most valuable listed companies in the world. At that scale, a 1% move in the Microsoft share price changes the company’s value by nearly $39 billion. The company’s 52-week high is $559.15, reached on 4 November 2026, and its 52-week low is $349.20, reached on 25 June 2026.

