Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Up 0.9% on Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) shot up 0.9% during mid-day trading on Thursday after Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on the stock from $475.00 to $515.00. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the stock. Microsoft traded as high as $442.97 and last traded at $441.34. 4,458,568 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 78% from the average session volume of 20,514,602 shares. The stock had previously closed at $437.39.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on MSFT. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, October 18th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $495.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $525.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $508.46.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total transaction of $3,050,352.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. This trade represents a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total transaction of $1,118,525.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 49,352 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,080,578.32. The trade was a 4.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892 over the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brass Tax Wealth Management Inc. grew its position in Microsoft by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Brass Tax Wealth Management Inc. now owns 9,819 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,225,000 after purchasing an additional 249 shares during the period. Legacy Wealth Management LLC MS raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Legacy Wealth Management LLC MS now owns 44,895 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $19,318,000 after buying an additional 1,933 shares during the period. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda acquired a new position in Microsoft during the third quarter worth $6,153,000. DGS Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 23,905 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $10,286,000 after buying an additional 817 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 13,488 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,809,000 after purchasing an additional 591 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Microsoft Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $3.27 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.90. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $426.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $428.20. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The firm’s revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.99 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.39%.

Microsoft declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Monday, September 16th that permits the company to buyback $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the software giant to buy up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.