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.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.4 %

MSFT Stock traded down $4.02 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $286.15. 20,517,572 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 32,772,719. Microsoft has a fifty-two week low of $241.51 and a fifty-two week high of $349.67. The company has a market capitalization of $2.13 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.70, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 1.78 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $266.15 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $279.37.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 26th. The software giant reported $2.23 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 period in the previous year, the company posted $2.17 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 10.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.62 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 17th. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.87%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio is presently 25.73%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $365.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, April 27th. KeyCorp cut their price target on shares of Microsoft from $373.00 to $330.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 7th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $372.00 to $354.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 12th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Microsoft from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 25th. Finally, Wolfe Research reduced their price target on Microsoft from $320.00 to $275.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $334.31.