Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target Raised to $515.00

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price objective hoisted by Wells Fargo & Company from $500.00 to $515.00 in a report published on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the software giant’s stock.

MSFT has been the subject of several other reports. Raymond James restated an outperform rating and set a $480.00 price target (up from $450.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, April 26th. UBS Group restated a buy rating and set a $480.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Wedbush reiterated an outperform rating and set a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, May 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an outperform rating and set a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, May 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Microsoft from $465.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $487.33.

Microsoft Trading Down 2.1 %

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $408.49 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $439.56 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $421.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a current ratio of 1.27. Microsoft has a twelve month low of $309.45 and a twelve month high of $468.35. The stock has a market cap of $3.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.37, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.90.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $2.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 return on equity of 35.95% and a net margin of 35.96%. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.69 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 13.04 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 25.97%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 244 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $415.53, for a total value 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the company’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 value of $10,642,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 104,949 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,674,690.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 244 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $415.53, for a total value of $101,389.32. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 47,011 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,534,480.83. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 25,566 shares of company stock worth $10,877,535. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc boosted its position in Microsoft by 169.2% in the second quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 70 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Friedenthal Financial bought a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth approximately $45,000. Neo Ivy Capital Management acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at $58,000. Richardson Capital Management LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 1,290.0% in the 1st quarter. Richardson Capital Management LLC now owns 139 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 129 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp boosted its stake in Microsoft by 23.7% in the fourth quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 188 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $71,000 after purchasing an additional 36 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.