Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Receives $510.30 Average PT from Analysts

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the thirty-four research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $512.63.

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $480.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Raymond James lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $490.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their price target on Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 16,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $458.18, for a total transaction of $7,330,880.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 98,010 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,906,221.80. This represents a 14.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $436.05, for a total transaction of $32,703,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 476,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $207,995,413.95. The trade was a 13.59% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 110,243 shares of company stock valued at $48,619,618. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC now owns 5,967 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,515,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the period. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. now owns 315,594 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $133,023,000 after buying an additional 18,052 shares during the period. Centric Wealth Management boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% during the third quarter. Centric Wealth Management now owns 16,156 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,789,000 after buying an additional 112 shares during the period. 1900 Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. 1900 Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,140 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,274,000 after buying an additional 294 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.4% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 9,250,128 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,980,299,000 after buying an additional 217,509 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Microsoft Price Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $452.57 on Monday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $399.71 and its 200 day moving average is $413.31. Microsoft has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week 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 company has a market capitalization of $3.36 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 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 firm had revenue of $70.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $68.54 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.94 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Microsoft will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.73%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.66%.

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.