Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) PT Raised to $425.00 at Wedbush

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price target hoisted by Wedbush from $400.00 to $425.00 in a report issued on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the software giant’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on MSFT. DA Davidson reiterated a buy rating and issued a $415.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, October 16th. Argus upped their target price on Microsoft from $371.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Monday, July 31st. HSBC upgraded Microsoft from a hold rating to a buy rating and upped their target price for the company from $347.00 to $413.00 in a report on Thursday, October 26th. StockNews.com started coverage on Microsoft in a report on Thursday, October 5th. They issued a buy rating on the stock. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $390.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, October 25th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $385.11.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $369.85 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $2.75 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 1.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $336.17 and its 200-day moving average is $331.96. Microsoft has a 1-year low of $219.35 and a 1-year high of $376.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 24th. The software giant reported $2.99 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.65 by $0.34. The company had revenue of $56.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $54.52 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.79% and a net margin of 35.31%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.35 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 11.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 16th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 15th. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 29.04%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 38,234 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $328.43, for a total value of $12,557,192.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 800,668 shares in the company, valued at approximately $262,963,391.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 26,815 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.37, for a total value of $8,778,426.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 198,373 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,941,369.01. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 38,234 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $328.43, for a total value of $12,557,192.62. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 800,668 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $262,963,391.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 634,238,715 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $147,714,197,000 after acquiring an additional 6,129,708 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 295,509,547 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $68,824,173,000 after acquiring an additional 1,951,554 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 215,874,152 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $68,162,263,000 after purchasing an additional 5,762,902 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 195,859,819 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $50,302,677,000 after purchasing an additional 556,020 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 112,158.6% during 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 purchasing an additional 150,053,637 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.20% of the company’s stock.

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.