Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirty-five research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-three have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $467.12.

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $455.00 to $465.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Microsoft from $465.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on Microsoft from $465.00 to $489.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $485.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $460.77 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $427.29 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $411.76. Microsoft has a twelve month low of $309.45 and a twelve month high of $461.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.42 trillion, a P/E ratio of 39.89, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 37.54%. The business had revenue of $61.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.86 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.45 earnings per share. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 11.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.65%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.97%.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $425.68, for a total value of $10,642,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 104,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $44,674,690.32. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 244 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $415.53, for a total transaction of $101,389.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 47,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,534,480.83. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $425.68, for a total transaction of $10,642,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 104,949 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,674,690.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 25,566 shares of company stock worth $10,877,535 in the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth $35,920,047,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $9,625,201,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Microsoft by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 664,908,939 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $250,032,357,000 after buying an additional 15,701,937 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the first quarter worth approximately $5,587,119,000. Finally, TCI Fund Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $4,000,376,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

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.