Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target Cut to $470.00 by Analysts at Piper Sandler

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price objective cut by Piper Sandler from $485.00 to $470.00 in a research report report published on Friday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the software giant’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also weighed in on MSFT. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Microsoft from $465.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twenty-eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $495.68.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.3 %

MSFT stock opened at $418.16 on Friday. Microsoft has a 12-month low of $324.39 and a 12-month high of $468.35. The business’s 50-day moving average is $419.66 and its 200 day moving average is $424.49. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market cap of $3.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.20, a PEG ratio of 2.22 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 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.90 by $0.05. Microsoft had a return on equity of 35.95% and a net margin of 35.96%. The firm had revenue of $64.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.38 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.69 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 13.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.79%. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 28.74%.

Microsoft declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the software giant to repurchase up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.04, for a total transaction of $1,027,600.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 50,000 shares in the company, valued at $20,552,000. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.04, for a total value of $1,027,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 50,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,552,000. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $417.41, for a total value of $6,009,869.18. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 786,933 shares in the company, valued at approximately $328,473,703.53. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 190,629 shares of company stock worth $77,916,485. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. New Harbor Financial Group LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 55.9% during the 2nd quarter. New Harbor Financial Group LLC now owns 1,255 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $561,000 after acquiring an additional 450 shares during the last quarter. Czech National Bank grew its position in Microsoft by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 1,307,487 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $550,086,000 after buying an additional 5,253 shares during the last quarter. True Link Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 296.7% in the 1st quarter. True Link Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,027 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,274,000 after buying an additional 2,264 shares during the period. AMG National Trust Bank raised its position in Microsoft by 19.0% during the 2nd quarter. AMG National Trust Bank now owns 81,502 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $36,427,000 after buying an additional 12,994 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Spinnaker Investment Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.7% in the first quarter. Spinnaker Investment Group LLC now owns 12,521 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,268,000 after acquiring an additional 326 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

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.