Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Given “Buy” Rating at DA Davidson

DA Davidson reiterated their buy rating on shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. DA Davidson currently has a $650.00 price target on the software giant’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on MSFT. Mizuho cut shares of Microsoft from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. Arete raised their price objective on Microsoft from $700.00 to $710.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $675.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on Microsoft from $650.00 to $625.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird initiated coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, November 14th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $600.00 price objective for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $634.33.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $480.84 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The company has a market cap of $3.57 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.20, a PEG ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.07. Microsoft has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $555.45. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $507.85 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $500.78.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.65 by $0.48. The firm had revenue of $77.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $75.49 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.71% and a return on equity of 32.45%. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.30 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 19th will be paid a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.89%.

Insider Activity

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total value of $19,967,640.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 461,597 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $239,402,668.08. The trade was a 7.70% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.52, for a total value of $6,266,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 129,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $63,577,620.48. The trade was a 8.97% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Microsoft by 2.0% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 705,077,786 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $350,712,742,000 after purchasing an additional 13,691,572 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 299,196,519 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $148,823,341,000 after buying an additional 3,166,275 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 179,001,751 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $88,714,256,000 after buying an additional 3,532,054 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $50,493,678,000. Finally, Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 564,387.1% during the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 90,549,369 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $45,040,162,000 after acquiring an additional 90,533,328 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.