Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.13 EPS

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) released its earnings results on Thursday. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13, Briefing.com reports. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 38.87%. The business had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.86 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.45 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. Microsoft updated its Q4 2024 guidance to EPS.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $406.32 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $414.48 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $388.12. The stock has a market cap of $3.02 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.18, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.89. Microsoft has a 52-week low of $295.25 and a 52-week high of $430.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a current ratio of 1.22.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 25.97%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the subject of several research reports. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $485.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $465.00 price target (up previously from $455.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $452.61.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total transaction of $18,530,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 574,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $236,414,839.62. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total transaction of $1,950,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,770,926.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total transaction of $18,530,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 574,129 shares in the company, valued at $236,414,839.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,070,258 shares of company stock valued at $30,690,456 over the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.