Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) PT Raised to $500.00

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price objective hoisted by stock analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $480.00 to $500.00 in a report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “overweight” rating on the software giant’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 22.46% from the stock’s current price.

MSFT has been the subject of a number of other reports. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $443.08.

Microsoft Stock Up 2.3 %

MSFT traded up $9.27 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $408.31. The company had a trading volume of 20,987,900 shares, compared to its average volume of 22,009,514. Microsoft has a 52 week low of $295.25 and a 52 week high of $430.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The company has a market capitalization of $3.03 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.96, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.89. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $414.44 and its 200 day moving average price is $387.17.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.86 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.27% and a return on equity of 38.40%. The business’s revenue was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.45 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 11.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft 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 transaction of $18,530,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 574,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $236,414,839.62. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 570,826 shares in the company, valued at approximately $231,823,855.12. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 574,129 shares of the company’s stock, 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. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. now owns 24,887 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,359,000 after acquiring an additional 185 shares during the period. Bailard Inc. boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Bailard Inc. now owns 470,301 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $148,497,000 after buying an additional 5,366 shares during the last quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 10.4% during the 4th quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC now owns 69,053 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $25,967,000 after purchasing an additional 6,484 shares during the last quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 17,471 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,516,000 after purchasing an additional 1,245 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bensler LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Bensler LLC now owns 86,932 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $27,449,000 after purchasing an additional 2,674 shares during 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.