Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Trading 0.1% Higher on Analyst Upgrade

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s share price shot up 0.1% on Wednesday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock from $460.00 to $480.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Microsoft traded as high as $418.88 and last traded at $414.92. 3,884,831 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 82% from the average session volume of 21,707,730 shares. The stock had previously closed at $414.58.

MSFT has been the topic of several other reports. KeyCorp assumed coverage on Microsoft in a report on Thursday, March 21st. They set an “overweight” rating and a $490.00 target price on the stock. Macquarie upped their price objective on Microsoft from $430.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $455.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $471.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $432.13.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total value of $18,530,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 574,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $236,414,839.62. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Microsoft news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total transaction of $1,950,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,770,926.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total value of $18,530,100.00. Following the transaction, 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. Insiders have sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock valued at $30,690,456 over the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% during the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $427,000 after buying an additional 216 shares during the period. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 20.8% during the first quarter. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC now owns 19,638 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $8,262,000 after buying an additional 3,386 shares during the period. Sloy Dahl & Holst LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the first quarter. Sloy Dahl & Holst LLC now owns 13,007 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,472,000 after buying an additional 39 shares during the period. Integrity Wealth Solutions LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 5.7% during the first quarter. Integrity Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 5,996 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,523,000 after buying an additional 323 shares during the period. Finally, Silverlake Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% during the first quarter. Silverlake Wealth Management LLC now owns 40,367 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $16,983,000 after buying an additional 292 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Down 1.8 %

The firm has a market cap of $3.00 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.89. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $415.29 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $384.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 1.20.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.76 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $62.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $61.14 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.27% and a return on equity of 38.40%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.32 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 11.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 27.12%.

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.