Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Trading Up 0.2%

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s share price was up 0.2% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $399.93 and last traded at $395.92. Approximately 4,194,471 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 81% from the average daily volume of 21,968,414 shares. The stock had previously closed at $394.94.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on MSFT shares. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $465.00 target price (up from $455.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $455.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Three equities 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, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $452.61.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.6 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.23. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $414.03 and its two-hundred day moving average is $389.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.95 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.28, a PEG ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.89.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 37.54%. The business had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.86 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.45 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 11.76 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 25.97%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $406.12, for a total transaction of $1,341,414.36. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 570,826 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $231,823,855.12. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $406.12, for a total transaction of $1,341,414.36. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 570,826 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $231,823,855.12. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, 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 value of $18,530,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 574,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $236,414,839.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock valued at $30,690,456 in the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new position in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at about $45,000. Richardson Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 1,290.0% in the first 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 in the last quarter. Neo Ivy Capital Management acquired a new position in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at about $58,000. PayPay Securities Corp raised its stake in Microsoft by 23.7% in the fourth quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 188 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $71,000 after purchasing an additional 36 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Horizon Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft in the first quarter valued at about $80,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

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.