Piper Sandler Reiterates Overweight Rating for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reiterated by investment analysts at Piper Sandler in a report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $465.00 target price on the software giant’s stock, up from their prior target price of $455.00. Piper Sandler’s target price suggests a potential upside of 16.53% from the stock’s current price.

MSFT has been the subject of several other reports. Barclays increased their price target on Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. StockNews.com lowered Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Microsoft from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Macquarie upped their price objective on Microsoft from $430.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, KeyCorp started coverage on Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $490.00 price objective on the stock. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $441.80.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $399.04 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.97 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.89. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $414.44 and its 200-day moving average is $387.17. Microsoft has a one year low of $292.73 and a one year high of $430.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 1.20.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $61.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.86 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.40% and a net margin of 36.27%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.45 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Microsoft will post 11.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total transaction of $1,950,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,770,926.10. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $406.12, for a total transaction of $1,341,414.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 570,826 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $231,823,855.12. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total value of $1,950,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,770,926.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,070,258 shares of company stock valued at $30,690,456 in the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. now owns 24,887 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,359,000 after acquiring an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. Bailard Inc. lifted its stake in Microsoft by 1.2% in the third quarter. Bailard Inc. now owns 470,301 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $148,497,000 after purchasing an additional 5,366 shares during the last quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 10.4% in the fourth quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC now owns 69,053 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $25,967,000 after purchasing an additional 6,484 shares during the last quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky raised its holdings in Microsoft by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 17,471 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,516,000 after acquiring an additional 1,245 shares during the period. Finally, Bensler LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Bensler LLC now owns 86,932 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $27,449,000 after acquiring an additional 2,674 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.