BMO Capital Markets Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) had its price objective hoisted by investment analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $485.00 to $550.00 in a research report issued on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. The firm currently has an "outperform" rating on the software giant's stock. BMO Capital Markets' price objective indicates a potential upside of 9.27% from the company's previous close.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on MSFT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Raymond James Financial increased their price target on Microsoft from $480.00 to $490.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Microsoft from $475.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Oppenheimer raised Microsoft from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $600.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $534.14.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.4%

MSFT stock traded up $1.84 during trading on Thursday, hitting $503.32. The company had a trading volume of 16,454,184 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,657,919. The business has a 50-day moving average of $469.28 and a 200-day moving average of $425.41. Microsoft has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $506.78. The stock has a market cap of $3.74 trillion, a PE ratio of 38.90, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.22 by $0.24. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 35.79%. The business had revenue of $70.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $68.54 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.94 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Microsoft will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 13,243 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $452.01, for a total value of $5,985,968.43. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 43,100 shares of the company's stock, valued at $19,481,631. This trade represents a 23.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $436.05, for a total transaction of $32,703,750.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 476,999 shares in the company, valued at approximately $207,995,413.95. This trade represents a 13.59% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 135,743 shares of company stock worth $60,224,683 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Westfuller Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 13.1% in the second quarter. Westfuller Advisors LLC now owns 3,931 shares of the software giant's stock worth $1,955,000 after buying an additional 454 shares in the last quarter. Quad Cities Investment Group LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 2.7% in the second quarter. Quad Cities Investment Group LLC now owns 11,263 shares of the software giant's stock worth $5,602,000 after buying an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Capital Wealth Advisors boosted its stake in Microsoft by 11.4% in the second quarter. Vanguard Capital Wealth Advisors now owns 3,327 shares of the software giant's stock worth $1,655,000 after buying an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. Petredis Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 0.9% in the second quarter. Petredis Investment Advisors LLC now owns 126,449 shares of the software giant's stock worth $62,897,000 after buying an additional 1,077 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Annex Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 7.1% in the second quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC now owns 116,541 shares of the software giant's stock worth $57,969,000 after buying an additional 7,770 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

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.