Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) shot up 0.7% on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $453.90 and last traded at $452.32. 6,114,817 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 71% from the average session volume of 21,433,230 shares. The stock had previously closed at $449.14.
Analyst Ratings Changes
Several brokerages have issued reports on MSFT. Wedbush upped their target price on Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. KeyCorp restated a "sector weight" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $509.16.
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Microsoft Price Performance
The stock has a market cap of $3.34 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.35. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $393.86 and a 200-day moving average price of $412.42.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.22 by $0.24. The company had revenue of $70.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $68.54 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.94 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Microsoft Announces Dividend
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio is presently 25.66%.
Insider Activity at Microsoft
In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.
Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft
Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth $44,343,058,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the 1st quarter valued at about $18,733,827,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 40,290.4% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 46,695,303 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $17,528,950,000 after purchasing an additional 46,579,693 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 34,643.3% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,837,278 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $7,096,913,000 after purchasing an additional 16,788,816 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant's stock worth $35,316,535,000 after buying an additional 11,600,470 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Microsoft Company Profile
(
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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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