Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) PT Raised to $470.00

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price target increased by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $440.00 to $470.00 in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an overweight rating on the software giant’s stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a buy rating and issued a $455.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. UBS Group restated a buy rating and set a $480.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Microsoft from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and set a $471.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. Wedbush reissued an outperform rating and set a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Microsoft from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $452.61.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $406.32 on Friday. 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 has a fifty-two week low of $295.25 and a fifty-two week high of $430.82. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $414.48 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $388.51. The stock has a market cap of $3.02 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.89.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a return on equity of 37.54% and a net margin of 36.43%. The business had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.86 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.45 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 11.71 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.97%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total value of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total value of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at $22,770,926.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock valued at $30,690,456 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% during the third quarter. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC now owns 14,103 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,453,000 after buying an additional 68 shares during the last quarter. Caliber Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Caliber Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,888 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,806,000 after purchasing an additional 316 shares in the last quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.3% during the third quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 65,525 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $20,689,000 after purchasing an additional 844 shares during the period. McGuire Investment Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 3.8% in the third quarter. McGuire Investment Group LLC now owns 52,388 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $16,541,000 after purchasing an additional 1,922 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kentucky Retirement Systems bought a new position in Microsoft in the third quarter worth $188,066,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

About Microsoft

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.