Barclays Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) had its price objective lifted by equities research analysts at Barclays from $430.00 to $494.00 in a research note issued on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage presently has an "overweight" rating on the software giant's stock. Barclays's price target would indicate a potential upside of 13.49% from the stock's current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on MSFT. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $435.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $509.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their target price on Microsoft from $510.00 to $480.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $507.77.

Microsoft Stock Up 2.3 %

Shares of MSFT traded up $9.88 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $435.28. The company's stock had a trading volume of 30,732,671 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,356,359. The company has a 50 day moving average of $384.93 and a two-hundred day moving average of $411.12. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The firm has a market cap of $3.24 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00. Microsoft has a 1-year low of $344.79 and a 1-year high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly 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 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. The business had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $68.54 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.94 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Newton One Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 66.7% during the first quarter. Newton One Investments LLC now owns 75 shares of the software giant's stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Ball & Co Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at $38,000. IFS Advisors LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 53.8% in the 4th quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 100 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management bought a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at $44,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.