Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirty-six ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have assigned a hold recommendation and twenty-five have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $288.33.

MSFT has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup cut their price target on Microsoft from $282.00 to $280.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Raymond James cut their price target on Microsoft from $300.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 26th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Microsoft from $325.00 to $307.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 26th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Microsoft from $315.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada set a $285.00 price target on Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 24,144 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $254.27, for a total transaction of $6,139,094.88. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 150,047 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,152,450.69. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Monumental Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Microsoft in the 1st quarter valued at $28,000. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. raised its position in Microsoft by 71.4% in the 3rd quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 132 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Financial Solutions LLC bought a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Macroview Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at $61,000. Institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $231.93 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $241.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $250.23. The company has a market cap of $1.73 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. Microsoft has a 1 year low of $213.43 and a 1 year high of $315.95.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 25th. The software giant reported $2.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $50.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $49.70 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 42.10% and a net margin of 34.37%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.27 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Microsoft will post 9.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.68 per share. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.17%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 15th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 29.31%.

Microsoft Company Profile

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Microsoft Corporation develops, licenses, and supports software, services, devices, and solutions worldwide. The company operates in three segments: Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft Viva, and Skype for Business; Skype, Outlook.com, OneDrive, and LinkedIn; and Dynamics 365, a set of cloud-based and on-premises business solutions for organizations and enterprise divisions.