Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Research Coverage Started at StockNews.com

StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) in a report issued on Thursday. The firm issued a hold rating on the software giant’s stock.

MSFT has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $296.00 to $280.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 10th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. Fundamental Research dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $269.73 to $259.47 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 2nd. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $300.00 to $280.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 19th. Finally, Wedbush raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Friday, February 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $286.05.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.2 %

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $279.43 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.08 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.05, a PEG ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.92. Microsoft has a 1-year low of $213.43 and a 1-year high of $315.95. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $252.31 and its 200-day moving average price is $245.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 1.93 and a quick ratio of 1.89.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $52.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $53.17 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.05% and a return on equity of 39.87%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.48 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 9.34 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.68 per share. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 30.22%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total transaction of $1,186,410.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total transaction of $1,186,410.96. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total transaction of $272,320.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,687,699.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 6,767 shares of company stock valued at $1,728,111 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Monumental Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 71.4% in the third quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 132 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Financial Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $54,000. 69.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Microsoft Company Profile

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Microsoft Corp. engages in the development and support of software, services, devices, and solutions. It operates through the following business segments: Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. The Productivity and Business Processes segment consists of Office Commercial (Office 365 subscriptions, the Office 365 portion of Microsoft 365 Commercial subscriptions, and Office licensed on-premises), Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, and Skype for Business, Office Consumer, including Microsoft 365 Consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other Office services, LinkedIn, including Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions, Premium Subscriptions, Sales Solutions, and Learning Solutions, Dynamics business solutions, including Dynamics 365, comprising a set of intelligent, cloud-based applications across ERP, CRM, Customer Insights, Power Apps, and Power Automate, and on-premises ERP and CRM applications.