Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed their overweight rating on shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) in a research note published on Friday, MarketBeat reports. They currently have a $565.00 price target on the software giant's stock, up from their prior price target of $515.00.
MSFT has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $540.00 to $605.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 11th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "overweight" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, June 4th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Wedbush restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Microsoft from $480.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $515.68.
Check Out Our Latest Research Report on Microsoft
Microsoft Stock Up 0.9%
Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT traded up $4.18 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $479.14. 15,536,581 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 21,515,256. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $428.05 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $418.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.35. Microsoft has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $480.64. The company has a market cap of $3.56 trillion, a PE ratio of 38.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.03.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.22 by $0.24. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. The company had revenue of $70.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $68.54 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.94 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Microsoft Dividend Announcement
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft's payout ratio is 25.66%.
Insiders Place Their Bets
In related news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 16,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $458.18, for a total value of $7,330,880.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 98,010 shares of the company's stock, valued at $44,906,221.80. This represents a 14.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing 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 that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $436.05, for a total value of $32,703,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 476,999 shares in the company, valued at approximately $207,995,413.95. This represents a 13.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 135,743 shares of company stock valued at $60,224,683 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.
Institutional Inflows and Outflows
A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Peterson Wealth Management raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 4.5% during the first quarter. Peterson Wealth Management now owns 14,047 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $5,273,000 after purchasing an additional 602 shares in the last quarter. Kondo Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Microsoft by 17.2% during the 1st quarter. Kondo Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 2,914 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $1,094,000 after buying an additional 428 shares during the period. Compass Financial Services Inc raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 108.4% during the 1st quarter. Compass Financial Services Inc now owns 1,949 shares of the software giant's stock worth $732,000 after buying an additional 1,014 shares in the last quarter. Birchbrook Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Birchbrook Inc. now owns 6,326 shares of the software giant's stock worth $2,375,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the period. Finally, Nicola Wealth Management LTD. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 6.4% in the first quarter. Nicola Wealth Management LTD. now owns 73,560 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $27,614,000 after acquiring an additional 4,400 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company's stock.
About Microsoft
(
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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.
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