The Goldman Sachs Group Increases Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target to $550.00

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) had its price objective lifted by research analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from $480.00 to $550.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a "buy" rating on the software giant's stock. The Goldman Sachs Group's target price would indicate a potential upside of 21.58% from the company's current price.

MSFT has been the subject of several other reports. KeyCorp reaffirmed a "sector weight" rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, April 17th. TD Securities raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $490.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $512.63.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT traded down $5.78 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $452.39. The company's stock had a trading volume of 7,609,850 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,508,103. Microsoft has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $468.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.36 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $398.43 and a 200 day moving average of $413.04.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.22 by $0.24. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. The business had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $68.54 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.94 EPS. The company's revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 13,243 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $452.01, for a total transaction of $5,985,968.43. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 43,100 shares of the company's stock, valued at $19,481,631. This trade represents a 23.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 16,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $458.18, for a total transaction of $7,330,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 98,010 shares in the company, valued at $44,906,221.80. This trade represents a 14.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 110,243 shares of company stock worth $48,619,618 over the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth $44,343,058,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 1st quarter valued at $18,733,827,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 40,290.4% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 46,695,303 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $17,528,950,000 after buying an additional 46,579,693 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 34,643.3% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,837,278 shares of the software giant's stock worth $7,096,913,000 after acquiring an additional 16,788,816 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 16.1% during the 4th 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 period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

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.

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