Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Given New $489.00 Price Target at Sanford C. Bernstein

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price objective raised by Sanford C. Bernstein from $465.00 to $489.00 in a report published on Friday, Benzinga reports. Sanford C. Bernstein currently has an outperform rating on the software giant’s stock.

MSFT has been the subject of several other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $460.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Raymond James boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Wedbush reissued an outperform rating and issued a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an overweight rating and issued a $455.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a buy rating and issued a $455.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $452.61.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT opened at $406.32 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $414.48 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $387.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a current ratio of 1.22. Microsoft has a 52 week low of $295.25 and a 52 week high of $430.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.02 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.18, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.89.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 38.87%. The firm had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.86 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.45 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 11.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be issued a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 25.97%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total value of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total transaction of $18,530,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 574,129 shares in the company, valued at $236,414,839.62. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at $64,538,265.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 0.5% in the third quarter. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC now owns 14,103 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,453,000 after acquiring an additional 68 shares during the period. Caliber Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 3.7% in the third quarter. Caliber Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,888 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,806,000 after acquiring an additional 316 shares during the period. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 1.3% in the third quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 65,525 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $20,689,000 after acquiring an additional 844 shares during the period. McGuire Investment Group LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 3.8% in the third quarter. McGuire Investment Group LLC now owns 52,388 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $16,541,000 after acquiring an additional 1,922 shares during the period. Finally, Kentucky Retirement Systems bought a new stake in Microsoft in the third quarter worth about $188,066,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Microsoft

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.