Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Microsoft was upgraded from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating by Wall Street Zen, reflecting increased confidence in the company's stock.
• Several research firms raised their price targets for Microsoft, with Royal Bank of Canada setting a new target of $640.00 and Sanford C. Bernstein increasing theirs to $637.00.
• Microsoft reported strong quarterly earnings, with a 36.15% net margin and revenue of $76.44 billion, exceeding analysts' expectations significantly.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) was upgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report issued on Saturday.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on MSFT. Guggenheim reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $525.00 to $640.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $540.00 to $637.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday. Loop Capital raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $530.00 to $582.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $609.86.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT opened at $524.11 on Friday. Microsoft has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $555.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.36. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $489.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $434.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.90 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.06.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.35 by $0.30. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.15% and a return on equity of 32.44%. The business had revenue of $76.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $73.79 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.95 earnings per share. Microsoft's revenue was up 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 13,243 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $452.01, for a total transaction of $5,985,968.43. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 43,100 shares in the company, valued at $19,481,631. This trade represents a 23.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 3,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $463.00, for a total transaction of $1,389,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 43,930 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,339,590. The trade was a 6.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 60,743 shares of company stock valued at $27,520,933 over the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Microsoft by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 691,386,214 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $259,539,471,000 after purchasing an additional 7,314,509 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 168,128,024 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $70,720,874,000 after purchasing an additional 3,103,212 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at $44,343,058,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 564,387.1% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 90,549,369 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $45,040,162,000 after purchasing an additional 90,533,328 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its position in Microsoft by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $35,316,535,000 after purchasing an additional 11,600,470 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.