Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target Raised to $515.00

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price objective boosted by Wedbush from $475.00 to $515.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning, Marketbeat reports. Wedbush currently has an outperform rating on the software giant’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on MSFT. Mizuho upped their price target on Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. KeyCorp reaffirmed a “sector weight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. StockNews.com cut shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $435.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 7th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $507.77.

Microsoft Stock Up 2.3 %

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $435.28 on Thursday. Microsoft has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $468.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.35. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $384.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $411.07. The company has a market cap of $3.24 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.73%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at about $44,343,058,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 40,290.4% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 46,695,303 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $17,528,950,000 after purchasing an additional 46,579,693 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 34,643.3% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,837,278 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $7,096,913,000 after purchasing an additional 16,788,816 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Microsoft by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $35,316,535,000 after purchasing an additional 11,600,470 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of 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. 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.