Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report)'s stock price traded up 1.1% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $420.60 and last traded at $420.54. 4,938,535 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 77% from the average session volume of 21,390,973 shares. The stock had previously closed at $415.81.
Analyst Ratings Changes
MSFT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Raymond James restated an "outperform" rating and set a $480.00 price objective (up from $450.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $475.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Truist Financial reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $600.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a "buy" rating and issued a $455.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com cut Microsoft from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $452.61.
Read Our Latest Research Report on MSFT
Microsoft Trading Up 1.6 %
The firm has a market cap of $3.14 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.89. The company's fifty day moving average price is $414.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $394.93. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $61.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.86 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 37.54% and a net margin of 36.43%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.45 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 11.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Microsoft Announces Dividend
The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft's payout ratio is 25.97%.
Insiders Place Their Bets
In other news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total value of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,770,926.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total value of $1,950,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,770,926.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of Microsoft 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares of the company's stock, valued at $64,538,265.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.
Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft
Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 667,987,038 shares of the software giant's stock worth $281,035,506,000 after acquiring an additional 3,078,099 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 215,874,152 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $68,162,263,000 after purchasing an additional 5,762,902 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at about $35,920,047,000. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 83,571,070 shares of the software giant's stock worth $35,160,020,000 after buying an additional 842,884 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 9.3% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 28,987,007 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $9,152,647,000 after buying an additional 2,456,190 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Microsoft Company Profile
(
Get Free Report)
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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