Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Down 0.5% Following Analyst Downgrade

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report)'s share price traded down 0.5% during mid-day trading on Friday after Citigroup lowered their price target on the stock from $480.00 to $475.00. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the stock. Microsoft traded as low as $399.39 and last traded at $402.29. 10,078,228 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 54% from the average session volume of 21,683,816 shares. The stock had previously closed at $404.27.

MSFT has been the topic of several other research reports. Macquarie increased their target price on Microsoft from $430.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Raymond James raised their price target on Microsoft from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Microsoft from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Microsoft from $455.00 to $465.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, KeyCorp began coverage on Microsoft in a report on Thursday, March 21st. They issued an "overweight" rating and a $490.00 price target on the stock. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $432.13.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total transaction of $18,530,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 574,129 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $236,414,839.62. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total value of $18,530,100.00. Following the transaction, 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. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock valued at $30,690,456. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 664,908,939 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $250,032,357,000 after acquiring an additional 15,701,937 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 295,509,547 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $68,824,173,000 after acquiring an additional 1,951,554 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 215,874,152 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $68,162,263,000 after acquiring an additional 5,762,902 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 195,859,819 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $50,302,677,000 after acquiring an additional 556,020 shares during the period. Finally, Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 112,158.6% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 150,187,424 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $36,017,948,000 after acquiring an additional 150,053,637 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.3 %

The business has a 50-day moving average price of $414.86 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $384.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.97 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.09, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.89. 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 released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.76 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $62.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $61.14 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.40% and a net margin of 36.27%. The company's revenue was up 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.32 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 11.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 27.12%.

Microsoft Company Profile

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.