Recent Research Analysts’ Ratings Changes for Microsoft (MSFT)

A number of research firms have changed their ratings and price targets for Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT):

• 4/12/2024 – Microsoft had its price target raised by analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $455.00 to $465.00. They now have an “outperform” rating on the stock.
• 4/11/2024 – Microsoft had its price target raised by analysts at Morgan Stanley from $465.00 to $520.00. They now have an “overweight” rating on the stock.
• 4/10/2024 – Microsoft had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Wedbush. They now have a $500.00 price target on the stock.
• 4/10/2024 – Microsoft had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by analysts at UBS Group AG. They now have a $480.00 price target on the stock.
• 4/1/2024 – Microsoft had its price target raised by analysts at Jefferies Financial Group Inc. from $465.00 to $550.00. They now have a “buy” rating on the stock.
• 3/26/2024 – Microsoft had its price target raised by analysts at Wedbush from $475.00 to $500.00. They now have an “outperform” rating on the stock.
• 3/25/2024 – Microsoft had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Truist Financial Co.. They now have a $600.00 price target on the stock.
• 3/21/2024 – Microsoft is now covered by analysts at KeyCorp. They set an “overweight” rating and a $490.00 price target on the stock.
• 3/15/2024 – Microsoft had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by analysts at DA Davidson. They now have a $500.00 price target on the stock.
• 3/6/2024 – Microsoft had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Jefferies Financial Group Inc.. They now have a $465.00 price target on the stock.
• 3/5/2024 – Microsoft had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by analysts at DA Davidson. They now have a $500.00 price target on the stock.
• 2/22/2024 – Microsoft was downgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating.
• 2/14/2024 – Microsoft was upgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating.

Microsoft Stock Down 1.0 %

NASDAQ MSFT traded down $4.17 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $423.76. 6,808,798 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 21,875,789. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $275.37 and a 1-year high of $430.82. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $414.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $380.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The company has a market cap of $3.15 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.31, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.89.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.76 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $62.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $61.14 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.40% and a net margin of 36.27%. The business’s revenue was up 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.32 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 11.61 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.71%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 27.12%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $406.12, for a total value of $1,341,414.36. Following the sale, the insider now owns 570,826 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $231,823,855.12. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $406.12, for a total transaction of $1,341,414.36. Following the sale, the insider now owns 570,826 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $231,823,855.12. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total value of $18,530,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 574,129 shares in the company, valued at approximately $236,414,839.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock valued at $30,690,456. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 112,158.6% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 150,187,424 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $36,017,948,000 after acquiring an additional 150,053,637 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth $35,920,047,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth $9,625,201,000. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 35,465.9% in the 1st quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 20,611,140 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $66,852,000 after acquiring an additional 20,553,188 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 664,908,939 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $250,032,357,000 after acquiring an additional 15,701,937 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

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.