Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) PT Raised to $500.00

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price objective boosted by Wedbush from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research note released on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. Wedbush currently has an outperform rating on the software giant’s stock.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Macquarie lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $430.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Argus lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $390.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 5th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Microsoft from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and set a $471.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $433.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 29th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $423.34.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.2 %

MSFT opened at $420.72 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. Microsoft has a 1-year low of $275.37 and a 1-year high of $430.82. The company has a market capitalization of $3.13 trillion, a PE ratio of 38.04, a PEG ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.89. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $410.82 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $374.31.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.76 by $0.17. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.27% and a return on equity of 38.40%. The business had revenue of $62.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $61.14 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.32 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 11.63 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 27.12%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total transaction of $18,530,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 574,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $236,414,839.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock valued at $30,690,456 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 112,158.6% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 150,187,424 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $36,017,948,000 after buying an additional 150,053,637 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth about $35,920,047,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth about $9,625,201,000. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 35,465.9% in the first quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 20,611,140 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $66,852,000 after buying an additional 20,553,188 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 664,908,939 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $250,032,357,000 after buying an additional 15,701,937 shares in 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.