Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) had its price target hoisted by The Goldman Sachs Group from $325.00 to $335.00 in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the software giant’s stock.
Other analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $310.00 to $340.00 in a report on Wednesday. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $285.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and thirty-three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $322.88.
Microsoft Stock Performance
Microsoft stock opened at $295.37 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.93, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $271.70 and a 200-day moving average of $252.46. The firm has a market cap of $2.20 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.93. Microsoft has a 1-year low of $213.43 and a 1-year high of $299.57.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.22 by $0.23. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.05% and a return on equity of 39.87%. The business had revenue of $52.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $51.01 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.22 earnings per share. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft will post 9.3 EPS for the current year.
Microsoft Announces Dividend
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.68 per share. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 30.22%.
Insider Transactions at Microsoft
In related news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.38, for a total transaction of $269,380.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 117,362 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,614,975.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.38, for a total transaction of $269,380.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 117,362 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,614,975.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on 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 owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111 in the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
Institutional Trading of Microsoft
A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Affiance Financial LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Affiance Financial LLC now owns 10,362 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,988,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Henrickson Nauta Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Microsoft by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Henrickson Nauta Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 2,898 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $835,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares during the last quarter. Rede Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Rede Wealth LLC now owns 9,653 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,783,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Sentinel Pension Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Microsoft by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Sentinel Pension Advisors Inc. now owns 3,746 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $898,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rovin Capital UT ADV increased its holdings in Microsoft by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Rovin Capital UT ADV now owns 3,747 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $873,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. 69.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Microsoft Company Profile
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.
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