Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Given Overweight Rating at Piper Sandler

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reissued by equities research analysts at Piper Sandler in a research note issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $485.00 price target on the software giant’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 14.68% from the company’s current price.

MSFT has been the subject of several other reports. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $480.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Argus raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $526.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $485.39.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $422.92 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.23. The company has a market capitalization of $3.14 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.62, a P/E/G ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.89. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $440.44 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $421.45. Microsoft has a one year low of $309.45 and a one year high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $2.95 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.90 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $64.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.38 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 37.54%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.69 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 11.77 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $425.68, for a total transaction of $10,642,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 104,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,674,690.32. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 244 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $415.53, for a total transaction of $101,389.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 47,011 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,534,480.83. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $425.68, for a total transaction of $10,642,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 104,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,674,690.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 25,566 shares of company stock valued at $10,877,535 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at $35,920,047,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at $9,625,201,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 664,908,939 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $250,032,357,000 after buying an additional 15,701,937 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 1st quarter valued at $5,587,119,000. Finally, TCI Fund Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth $4,000,376,000. 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.