Microsoft's (MSFT) Outperform Rating Reiterated at Royal Bank of Canada

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "outperform" rating reissued by Royal Bank of Canada in a research report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $500.00 price objective on the software giant's stock. Royal Bank of Canada's price target indicates a potential upside of 16.24% from the stock's current price.

MSFT has been the subject of several other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Microsoft from $480.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $485.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Piper Sandler restated an "overweight" rating and set a $465.00 price objective (up previously from $455.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, April 26th. DA Davidson restated a "buy" rating and set a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, March 15th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $454.70.

Microsoft Price Performance

NASDAQ MSFT traded up $3.16 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $430.16. The stock had a trading volume of 11,846,069 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,251,229. Microsoft has a 52-week low of $309.45 and a 52-week high of $433.60. The company has a market cap of $3.20 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.10, a P/E/G ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $416.08 and a 200 day simple moving average of $398.15. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.86 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 37.54% and a net margin of 36.43%. Microsoft's revenue was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.45 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 11.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the company's 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at $64,538,265.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $425.68, for a total transaction of $10,642,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 104,949 shares of the company's stock, valued at $44,674,690.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were 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. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Friedenthal Financial bought a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth approximately $45,000. Richardson Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 1,290.0% in the 1st quarter. Richardson Capital Management LLC now owns 139 shares of the software giant's stock worth $59,000 after buying an additional 129 shares in the last quarter. Neo Ivy Capital Management bought a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth approximately $58,000. Bellevue Group AG grew its holdings in Microsoft by 47.5% in the 1st quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 180 shares of the software giant's stock worth $76,000 after buying an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp grew its holdings in Microsoft by 23.7% in the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 188 shares of the software giant's stock worth $71,000 after buying an additional 36 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.