Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Piper Sandler Analyst Says

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) had its price objective lifted by Piper Sandler from $475.00 to $600.00 in a research report released on Thursday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the software giant's stock.

Several other analysts have also commented on MSFT. Oppenheimer raised shares of Microsoft from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $600.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $540.00 to $605.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 11th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $565.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 25th. Finally, Guggenheim reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $534.14.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT traded down $2.03 on Thursday, hitting $501.48. The stock had a trading volume of 16,466,043 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,679,969. Microsoft has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $506.78. The company has a quick ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock has a market cap of $3.73 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.75, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.04. The company's 50-day moving average is $467.76 and its two-hundred day moving average is $424.96.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio is currently 25.66%.

Insider Activity

In other Microsoft news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 16,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $458.18, for a total value of $7,330,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 98,010 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,906,221.80. This trade represents a 14.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $436.05, for a total transaction of $32,703,750.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 476,999 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $207,995,413.95. This represents a 13.59% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 135,743 shares of company stock worth $60,224,683 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $44,343,058,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft during the first quarter worth $18,733,827,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 40,290.4% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 46,695,303 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $17,528,950,000 after purchasing an additional 46,579,693 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 34,643.3% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,837,278 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $7,096,913,000 after purchasing an additional 16,788,816 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings 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 purchasing 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.