Microsoft’s (MSFT) Outperform Rating Reaffirmed at Wedbush

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reissued by equities researchers at Wedbush in a report issued on Tuesday,RTT News reports. They presently have a $550.00 target price on the software giant’s stock. Wedbush’s price objective points to a potential upside of 31.65% from the company’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $470.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $506.00 to $548.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $503.03.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT traded up $2.03 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $417.79. The stock had a trading volume of 18,112,057 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,524,730. The company has a market capitalization of $3.11 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $422.54 and a 200-day simple moving average of $426.13. Microsoft has a 1 year low of $362.90 and a 1 year high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.99 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft will post 12.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Monday, September 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the software giant to buy up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $417.41, for a total transaction of $6,009,869.18. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 786,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $328,473,703.53. This trade represents a 1.80 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.59, for a total value of $16,103,600.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 544,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $219,349,953.73. This represents a 6.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 197,829 shares of company stock worth $80,966,837 in the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc boosted its position in Microsoft by 169.2% during the second quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 70 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $45,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Microsoft in the third quarter valued at about $62,000. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth $75,000. Finally, Bellevue Group AG increased its stake in Microsoft by 47.5% during the first quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 180 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $76,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% 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.