BMO Capital Markets Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price target raised by BMO Capital Markets from $550.00 to $650.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the software giant’s stock. BMO Capital Markets’ target price suggests a potential upside of 24.02% from the stock’s current price.

MSFT has been the subject of several other research reports. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Raymond James Financial upped their price objective on Microsoft from $490.00 to $570.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $581.00 price target (up previously from $512.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Microsoft from $465.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $609.86.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $524.11 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.90 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.42, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.06. Microsoft has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $555.45. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $489.94 and a 200 day simple moving average of $434.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.35 by $0.30. The company had revenue of $76.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $73.79 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.15% and a return on equity of 32.44%. The business’s revenue was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.95 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 3,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $463.00, for a total transaction of $1,389,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 43,930 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,339,590. The trade was a 6.39% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Amy Coleman sold 13,243 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $452.01, for a total transaction of $5,985,968.43. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 43,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,481,631. The trade was a 23.50% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 60,743 shares of company stock valued at $27,520,933 over the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Newton One Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 66.7% in the 1st quarter. Newton One Investments LLC now owns 75 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Ball & Co Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Bulwark Capital Corp acquired a new position in Microsoft in the second quarter valued at about $32,000. Westend Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 386.7% in the second quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth about $44,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Company Profile

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.