Microsoft - MSFT Stock Forecast, Price & News

Microsoft Corporation develops, licenses, and supports software, services, devices, and solutions worldwide. Its Productivity and Business Processes segment offers Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, and Skype for Business, as well as related Client Access Licenses (CAL); Skype, Outlook.com, OneDrive, and LinkedIn; and Dynamics 365, a set of cloud-based and on-premises business solutions for organizations and enterprise divisions. Its Intelligent Cloud segment licenses SQL, Windows Servers, Visual Studio, System Center, and related CALs; GitHub that provides a collaboration platform and code hosting service for developers; and Azure, a cloud platform. It also offers support services and Microsoft consulting services to assist customers in developing, deploying, and managing Microsoft server and desktop solutions; and training and certification on Microsoft products. Its More Personal Computing segment provides Windows original equipment manufacturer (OEM) licensing and other non-volume licensing of the Windows operating system; Windows Commercial, such as volume licensing of the Windows operating system, Windows cloud services, and other Windows commercial offerings; patent licensing; Windows Internet of Things; and MSN advertising. It also offers Surface, PC accessories, PCs, tablets, gaming and entertainment consoles, and other devices; Gaming, including Xbox hardware, and Xbox content and services; video games and third-party video game royalties; and Search, including Bing and Microsoft advertising. It sells its products through OEMs, distributors, and resellers; and directly through digital marketplaces, online stores, and retail stores. It has collaborations with Dynatrace, Inc., Morgan Stanley, Micro Focus, WPP plc, ACI Worldwide, Inc., and iCIMS, Inc., as well as strategic relationships with Avaya Holdings Corp. and wejo Limited. Microsoft Corporation was founded in 1975 and is based in Redmond, Washington.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $350.00 to $340.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. set a $320.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, June 9th. Wedbush decreased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $340.00 to $320.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $365.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, April 27th. Finally, KeyCorp decreased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $373.00 to $330.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $335.72.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT Stock traded up $1.59 on Monday, hitting $284.50. The company's stock had a trading volume of 328,662 shares, compared to its average volume of 33,394,793. The stock has a market cap of $2.12 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.78, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. Microsoft has a 1 year low of $241.51 and a 1 year high of $349.67. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $262.96 and a two-hundred day moving average of $280.03.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 26th. The software giant reported $2.23 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $2.29 by ($0.06). Microsoft had a return on equity of 43.31% and a net margin of 36.69%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.17 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Microsoft will post 10.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.62 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 17th. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.87%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.73%.