Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target Raised to $515.00 at The Goldman Sachs Group

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its target price lifted by The Goldman Sachs Group from $450.00 to $515.00 in a research note published on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a buy rating on the software giant’s stock.

MSFT has been the topic of several other research reports. Truist Financial reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $600.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, March 25th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Microsoft from $455.00 to $465.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Barclays raised their price objective on Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. StockNews.com downgraded Microsoft from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Microsoft from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $452.61.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT stock opened at $406.32 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $414.48 and its 200-day moving average is $387.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The company has a market cap of $3.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.89. Microsoft has a twelve month low of $295.25 and a twelve month high of $430.82.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $61.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.86 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.87% and a net margin of 36.43%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.45 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 11.61 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.97%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $406.12, for a total transaction of $1,341,414.36. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 570,826 shares in the company, valued at $231,823,855.12. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $406.12, for a total value of $1,341,414.36. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 570,826 shares in the company, valued at $231,823,855.12. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of Microsoft 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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 574,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $236,414,839.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,920,047,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $9,625,201,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Microsoft by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 664,908,939 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $250,032,357,000 after purchasing an additional 15,701,937 shares in the last quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. acquired a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $4,000,376,000. Finally, FMR LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 2.7% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 215,874,152 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $68,162,263,000 after purchasing an additional 5,762,902 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.