Investment Analysts’ Recent Ratings Updates for Microsoft (MSFT)

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has recently received a number of price target changes and ratings updates:

• 10/25/2024 – Microsoft had its price target lowered by analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein from $501.00 to $500.00. They now have an “outperform” rating on the stock.
• 10/23/2024 – Microsoft had its price target lowered by analysts at Citigroup Inc. from $500.00 to $497.00. They now have a “buy” rating on the stock.
• 10/18/2024 – Microsoft had its “underperform” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Wedbush.
• 10/18/2024 – Microsoft had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company.
• 10/18/2024 – Microsoft had its price target lowered by analysts at Piper Sandler from $485.00 to $470.00. They now have an “overweight” rating on the stock.
• 10/18/2024 – Microsoft had its price target raised by analysts at KeyCorp from $490.00 to $505.00. They now have an “overweight” rating on the stock.
• 10/10/2024 – Microsoft had its price target lowered by analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. from $515.00 to $500.00. They now have a “buy” rating on the stock.
• 10/8/2024 – Microsoft was downgraded by analysts at Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating.
• 10/8/2024 – Microsoft had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Truist Financial Co.. They now have a $600.00 price target on the stock.
• 9/23/2024 – Microsoft was downgraded by analysts at DA Davidson from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating. They now have a $475.00 price target on the stock.
• 9/17/2024 – Microsoft had its “overweight” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Morgan Stanley. They now have a $506.00 price target on the stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT traded up $2.42 on Friday, reaching $427.15. 9,373,344 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 20,206,438. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $420.40 and a 200-day moving average price of $424.56. The firm has a market cap of $3.18 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.27. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $326.94 and a fifty-two week high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $2.95 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.90 by $0.05. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.96% and a return on equity of 35.95%. The business had revenue of $64.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.38 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.69 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 13.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a $0.83 dividend. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.78%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.40%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 78,353 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $408.63, for a total value of $32,017,386.39. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 864,327 shares in the company, valued at $353,189,942.01. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 78,353 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $408.63, for a total value of $32,017,386.39. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 864,327 shares in the company, valued at $353,189,942.01. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 17,378 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.85, for a total value of $7,157,129.30. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 150,161 shares in the company, valued at $61,843,807.85. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 48,526.1% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 38,501,645 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $16,567,258,000 after acquiring an additional 38,422,466 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 1st quarter valued at about $5,587,119,000. Wulff Hansen & CO. grew its stake in Microsoft by 47,196.6% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,834,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,160,850,000 after buying an additional 4,824,436 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Microsoft by 0.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 667,987,038 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $281,035,506,000 after buying an additional 3,078,099 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 77.6% in the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 6,281,925 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,642,931,000 after acquiring an additional 2,744,900 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

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.