Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target Lowered to $475.00 at Citigroup

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price objective cut by Citigroup from $480.00 to $475.00 in a report released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the software giant’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Wedbush reissued an outperform rating and issued a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Microsoft from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and set a $471.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 18th. Macquarie boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $430.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. KeyCorp assumed coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. They issued an overweight rating and a $490.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Piper Sandler restated an overweight rating and issued a $455.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $432.13.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $404.27 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $415.29 and a 200-day simple moving average of $384.29. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. Microsoft has a 1-year low of $275.37 and a 1-year high of $430.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.00 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.55, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.89.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.76 by $0.17. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.27% and a return on equity of 38.40%. The business had revenue of $62.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $61.14 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.32 earnings per share. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft will post 11.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 27.12%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total value of $18,530,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 574,129 shares in the company, valued at $236,414,839.62. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at $64,538,265.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock valued at $30,690,456. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Monumental Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the first quarter valued at about $28,000. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at about $45,000. Bellevue Group AG acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at about $46,000. Richardson Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1,290.0% in the first quarter. Richardson Capital Management LLC now owns 139 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $59,000 after acquiring an additional 129 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Neo Ivy Capital Management acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at about $58,000. 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.