Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Given New $512.00 Price Target at Cantor Fitzgerald

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its target price boosted by Cantor Fitzgerald from $502.00 to $512.00 in a report released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Cantor Fitzgerald currently has an overweight rating on the software giant’s stock. Cantor Fitzgerald also issued estimates for Microsoft’s FY2025 earnings at $13.36 EPS.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on MSFT. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Microsoft from $470.00 to $485.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Microsoft from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $507.77.

Microsoft Stock Up 7.6 %

Shares of MSFT opened at $425.40 on Thursday. Microsoft has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $468.35. The firm has a market cap of $3.16 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $384.18 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $411.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.34.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.22 by $0.24. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. The business had revenue of $70.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $68.54 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.94 EPS. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.78%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.73%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at $44,343,058,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 40,290.4% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 46,695,303 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $17,528,950,000 after acquiring an additional 46,579,693 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 34,643.3% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,837,278 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $7,096,913,000 after acquiring an additional 16,788,816 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in Microsoft by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $35,316,535,000 after acquiring an additional 11,600,470 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Microsoft by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 684,071,705 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $288,336,224,000 after buying an additional 10,431,988 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

About Microsoft

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.