Wedbush Reaffirms Outperform Rating for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Wedbush restated their outperform rating on shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) in a report published on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $500.00 price objective on the software giant's stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on MSFT. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $455.00 to $465.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $485.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Macquarie upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $460.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $454.70.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT stock traded up $1.48 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $430.52. The company had a trading volume of 17,828,532 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,386,223. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.23. Microsoft has a 1 year low of $309.45 and a 1 year high of $432.97. The company has a market capitalization of $3.20 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.89. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $416.05 and a 200-day moving average price of $397.95.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 37.54%. The business had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $60.86 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.45 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 11.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm 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 of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.70%. Microsoft's payout ratio is 25.97%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related 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 directly owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,770,926.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction 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 document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total transaction of $1,950,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares of the company's stock, valued at $22,770,926.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Burney Co. increased its stake in Microsoft by 3.9% during the 1st quarter. Burney Co. now owns 153,288 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $64,491,000 after purchasing an additional 5,776 shares in the last quarter. Beck Bode LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 4,609.4% during the 1st quarter. Beck Bode LLC now owns 29,104 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $12,245,000 after purchasing an additional 28,486 shares in the last quarter. Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree INC. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree INC. now owns 2,232 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $939,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Second Line Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 5.1% during the 1st quarter. Second Line Capital LLC now owns 11,054 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $4,651,000 after acquiring an additional 538 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BigSur Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 13.6% during the 1st quarter. BigSur Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,673 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $2,807,000 after acquiring an additional 800 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.