Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Jefferies Financial Group Analyst Says

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its target price increased by analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from $475.00 to $550.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the software giant’s stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s price target points to a potential upside of 26.36% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research firms have also weighed in on MSFT. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $510.00 to $480.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Guggenheim reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday. TD Securities increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $490.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Microsoft from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $507.77.

Microsoft Stock Up 2.3 %

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $435.28 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The company has a market cap of $3.24 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.05, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a 50 day moving average of $384.93 and a 200-day moving average of $411.12. Microsoft has a 1-year low of $344.79 and a 1-year high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.22 by $0.24. The firm had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $68.54 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.94 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Microsoft will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 21.4% in the 1st quarter. Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC now owns 34,527 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $12,961,000 after acquiring an additional 6,086 shares during the period. Markel Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.6% in the first quarter. Markel Group Inc. now owns 522,730 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $196,228,000 after purchasing an additional 3,250 shares during the period. Burling Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. Burling Wealth Partners LLC now owns 63,100 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $23,687,000 after buying an additional 1,178 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 472.8% in the 1st quarter. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. now owns 51,349 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $19,276,000 after buying an additional 42,384 shares during the period. Finally, Hardy Reed LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Hardy Reed LLC now owns 27,703 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $10,399,000 after buying an additional 199 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.