Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) had its price target lifted by Atlantic Securities from $290.00 to $330.00 in a research report released on Wednesday morning, Briefing.com reports. Atlantic Securities currently has an overweight rating on the software giant’s stock.
Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on MSFT. Credit Suisse Group lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $285.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $332.00 to $340.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Guggenheim lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $212.00 to $232.00 and gave the company a sell rating in a research report on Wednesday. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upgraded Microsoft from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $325.00 to $347.00 in a research report on Wednesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and thirty-three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $322.88.
Microsoft Price Performance
Shares of MSFT stock opened at $295.37 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $271.70 and a two-hundred day moving average of $252.46. The company has a current ratio of 1.93, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Microsoft has a 12 month low of $213.43 and a 12 month high of $299.57. The company has a market capitalization 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 (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.22 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $52.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $51.01 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 39.87% and a net margin of 33.05%. Microsoft’s revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.22 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Microsoft will post 9.3 EPS for the current year.
Microsoft Announces Dividend
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be paid a $0.68 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.92%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 30.22%.
Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft
In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total value of $272,320.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 116,362 shares in the company, valued at $31,687,699.84. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 28th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total value of $272,320.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 116,362 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,687,699.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 6,767 shares of company stock valued at $1,728,111. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.
Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft
A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. S. R. Schill & Associates increased its position in Microsoft by 1.4% during the first quarter. S. R. Schill & Associates now owns 17,792 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,129,000 after buying an additional 253 shares during the last quarter. Paragon Wealth Strategies LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 1.2% during the first quarter. Paragon Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 4,174 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,203,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 6.9% during the first quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC now owns 16,575 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,779,000 after buying an additional 1,064 shares during the last quarter. Pinnacle Wealth Management Group Inc. increased its position in Microsoft by 23.3% during the first quarter. Pinnacle Wealth Management Group Inc. now owns 21,140 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,518,000 after buying an additional 3,996 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Destiny Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 55.9% in the first quarter. Destiny Wealth Partners LLC now owns 29,010 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $8,363,000 after purchasing an additional 10,396 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.15% of the company’s stock.
About Microsoft
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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