Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) had its price objective raised by TD Cowen from $300.00 to $330.00 in a report issued on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. TD Cowen currently has an outperform rating on the software giant’s stock.
MSFT has been the topic of a number of other reports. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $316.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, April 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $310.00 to $340.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $270.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $307.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $320.00 to $340.00 in a research note on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and thirty-three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $322.88.
Microsoft Stock Performance
Shares of MSFT opened at $295.37 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $271.70 and a 200-day simple moving average of $252.46. The company has a quick ratio of 1.89, a current ratio of 1.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The company has a market capitalization of $2.20 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.93. Microsoft has a 52-week low of $213.43 and a 52-week high of $299.57.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 net margin of 33.05% and a return on equity of 39.87%. The business’s revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.22 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Microsoft will post 9.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Microsoft Announces Dividend
The company also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.92%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 30.22%.
Insider Buying and Selling
In related news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Monday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total value of $272,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares in the company, valued at $31,687,699.84. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, 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 value of $1,186,410.96. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Monday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total transaction of $272,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 116,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,687,699.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.
Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft
A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. S. R. Schill & Associates boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 1.4% in the first quarter. S. R. Schill & Associates now owns 17,792 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,129,000 after purchasing an additional 253 shares during the period. Paragon Wealth Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 1.2% in the first quarter. Paragon Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 4,174 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,203,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 6.9% in the first quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC now owns 16,575 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,779,000 after purchasing an additional 1,064 shares during the period. Pinnacle Wealth Management Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 23.3% in the first quarter. Pinnacle Wealth Management Group Inc. now owns 21,140 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,518,000 after purchasing an additional 3,996 shares during the period. Finally, Destiny Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 55.9% in the first quarter. Destiny Wealth Partners LLC now owns 29,010 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $8,363,000 after purchasing an additional 10,396 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.15% of the company’s stock.
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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