Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Upgraded at Oppenheimer

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) was upgraded by stock analysts at Oppenheimer from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a report released on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a $600.00 target price on the software giant's stock. Oppenheimer's price objective would indicate a potential upside of 19.21% from the company's current price.

MSFT has been the subject of several other research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their target price on Microsoft from $502.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Piper Sandler reiterated an "overweight" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. TD Securities raised their target price on Microsoft from $475.00 to $490.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Microsoft from $480.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $534.14.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock traded up $1.84 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $503.32. 16,454,184 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 21,657,908. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.36. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $469.28 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $425.41. The company has a market capitalization of $3.74 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.90, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.04. Microsoft has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $506.78.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.22 by $0.24. The business had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $68.54 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 35.79%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.94 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 3,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $463.00, for a total transaction of $1,389,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 43,930 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $20,339,590. This trade represents a 6.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $453.77, for a total value of $9,756,055.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 134,888 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $61,208,127.76. The trade was a 13.75% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 135,743 shares of company stock valued at $60,224,683. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Microsoft by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 691,386,214 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $259,539,471,000 after acquiring an additional 7,314,509 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 168,128,024 shares of the software giant's stock worth $70,720,874,000 after buying an additional 3,103,212 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth $44,343,058,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 564,387.1% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 90,549,369 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $45,040,162,000 after purchasing an additional 90,533,328 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $35,316,535,000 after acquiring an additional 11,600,470 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company's stock.

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.