Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) has received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirty-nine research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have given a hold recommendation and twenty-five have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $325.47.

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Microsoft from $307.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Barclays boosted their target price on Microsoft from $310.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Wedbush boosted their target price on Microsoft from $325.00 to $340.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 11th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on Microsoft from $280.00 to $322.00 in a research report on Monday, April 24th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their target price on Microsoft from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $313.85 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $294.26 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $263.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.33 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.00, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.93. Microsoft has a fifty-two week low of $213.43 and a fifty-two week high of $322.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.88 and a current ratio of 1.91.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.22 by $0.23. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.98% and a net margin of 33.25%. The firm had revenue of $52.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $51.01 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.22 EPS. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 9.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be issued a $0.68 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.87%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.47%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total transaction of $1,186,410.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.87, for a total transaction of $1,584,350.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 89,328 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,305,363.36. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total transaction of $1,186,410.96. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 54,848 shares of company stock valued at $16,635,227. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. DGS Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 19.9% during the 1st quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 14,342 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,422,000 after acquiring an additional 2,383 shares during the period. IFM Investors Pty Ltd grew its holdings in Microsoft by 20.8% during the first quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 1,138,469 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $351,001,000 after purchasing an additional 196,338 shares during the period. Altus Wealth Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% in the first quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC now owns 12,712 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,919,000 after buying an additional 152 shares during the period. Powell Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 16.2% in the first quarter. Powell Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,578 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $795,000 after buying an additional 359 shares during the period. Finally, Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 8.2% in the first quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC now owns 6,782 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,921,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. 69.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Microsoft

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Microsoft Corp. engages in the development and support of software, services, devices, and solutions. It operates through the following business segments: Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. The Productivity and Business Processes segment consists of Office Commercial (Office 365 subscriptions, the Office 365 portion of Microsoft 365 Commercial subscriptions, and Office licensed on-premises), Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, and Skype for Business, Office Consumer, including Microsoft 365 Consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other Office services, LinkedIn, including Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions, Premium Subscriptions, Sales Solutions, and Learning Solutions, Dynamics business solutions, including Dynamics 365, comprising a set of intelligent, cloud-based applications across ERP, CRM, Customer Insights, Power Apps, and Power Automate, and on-premises ERP and CRM applications.