Mizuho Issues Positive Forecast for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock Price

Key Points

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Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) had its target price increased by Mizuho from $540.00 to $625.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning, Marketbeat reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the software giant's stock.

MSFT has been the subject of several other research reports. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $515.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Wedbush boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $600.00 to $625.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday. Wall Street Zen lowered Microsoft from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, June 30th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised their target price on Microsoft from $581.00 to $639.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $609.86.

Microsoft Price Performance

NASDAQ MSFT traded down $9.28 during trading on Thursday, hitting $524.22. 9,499,639 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 22,302,398. The company has a market cap of $3.90 trillion, a PE ratio of 38.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 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. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $488.46 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $434.13. Microsoft has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.35 by $0.30. The company had revenue of $76.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $73.79 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.49% and a net margin of 36.15%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.95 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 21st will be issued a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft's payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $453.77, for a total transaction of $9,756,055.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 134,888 shares of the company's stock, valued at $61,208,127.76. The trade was a 13.75% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Amy Coleman sold 13,243 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The stock was 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 60,743 shares of company stock worth $27,520,933. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Newton One Investments LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 66.7% in the first quarter. Newton One Investments LLC now owns 75 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Ball & Co Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Bulwark Capital Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Westend Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 386.7% in the second quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant's stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management acquired a new position in Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth $44,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company's stock.

About Microsoft

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.