Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Receives Outperform Rating from Wedbush

Wedbush reissued their outperform rating on shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $500.00 target price on the software giant’s stock. Wedbush also issued estimates for Microsoft’s Q4 2024 earnings at $2.89 EPS, FY2024 earnings at $11.74 EPS, Q1 2025 earnings at $3.17 EPS, Q2 2025 earnings at $3.31 EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at $3.32 EPS and FY2025 earnings at $13.29 EPS.

MSFT has been the subject of several other reports. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on Microsoft from $465.00 to $489.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Friday. Macquarie boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $430.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. UBS Group restated a buy rating and set a $480.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Truist Financial restated a buy rating and set a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $452.61.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $406.32 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.02 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.18, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.89. Microsoft has a 12 month low of $295.25 and a 12 month high of $430.82. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $414.48 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $388.51. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

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. The company had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.86 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 37.54%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.45 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Microsoft will post 11.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.97%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total transaction of $18,530,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 574,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $236,414,839.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456 over the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Johnson Bixby & Associates LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Johnson Bixby & Associates LLC now owns 6,481 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,727,000 after buying an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Morris Financial Concepts Inc. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Morris Financial Concepts Inc. now owns 2,663 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,001,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Innova Wealth Partners boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Innova Wealth Partners now owns 4,239 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,594,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the period. Arkansas Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Microsoft by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Arkansas Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,719 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $646,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Partnership Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Partnership Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,202 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,609,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.