Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) had its price objective decreased by Citigroup from $480.00 to $475.00 in a research note released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the software giant's stock.
Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group reiterated a buy rating and set a $480.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $460.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, BNP Paribas raised Microsoft from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and set a $471.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-six have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $432.13.
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Microsoft Trading Down 1.8 %
Microsoft stock traded down $7.57 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $404.27. The stock had a trading volume of 20,988,889 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,865,080. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $415.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $384.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.00 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.89. Microsoft has a 12 month low of $275.37 and a 12 month high of $430.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.76 by $0.17. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.40% and a net margin of 36.27%. The firm had revenue of $62.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $61.14 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.32 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 11.61 EPS for the current year.
Microsoft Dividend Announcement
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.12%.
Insider Activity at Microsoft
In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total value of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total value of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total value of $18,530,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 574,129 shares of the company's stock, valued at $236,414,839.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456 in the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
Institutional Trading of Microsoft
A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Dash Acquisitions Inc. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 3.7% during the 1st quarter. Dash Acquisitions Inc. now owns 74,321 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $30,608,000 after acquiring an additional 2,618 shares during the period. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 17,441 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $7,338,000 after acquiring an additional 168 shares during the period. Applied Capital LLC FL lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Applied Capital LLC FL now owns 13,212 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $5,559,000 after acquiring an additional 94 shares during the period. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC now owns 81,433 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $34,260,000 after acquiring an additional 2,320 shares during the period. Finally, Financial Strategies Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 16.2% during the 1st quarter. Financial Strategies Group Inc. now owns 11,099 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $4,731,000 after acquiring an additional 1,551 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
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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