Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) has received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-nine ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have issued a hold recommendation and twenty-six have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $502.97.

MSFT has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price objective on Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $506.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $520.00 to $510.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Argus raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $526.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their price target on Microsoft from $485.00 to $470.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 18th.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $417.41, for a total value of $6,009,869.18. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 786,933 shares in the company, valued at $328,473,703.53. 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 through the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 23rd. The shares were 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 represents 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, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.59, for a total transaction of $16,103,600.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 544,847 shares in the company, valued at $219,349,953.73. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 190,629 shares of company stock worth $77,916,485 over the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. American Capital Advisory LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 25.4% during the third quarter. American Capital Advisory LLC now owns 2,573 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,107,000 after acquiring an additional 521 shares in the last quarter. CV Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 3.1% in the third quarter. CV Advisors LLC now owns 23,832 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $10,255,000 after purchasing an additional 714 shares during the last quarter. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 2.8% in the third quarter. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 15,251 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,562,000 after purchasing an additional 422 shares during the last quarter. Gordian Advisors LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 481.6% during the 3rd quarter. Gordian Advisors LLC now owns 10,388 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,470,000 after purchasing an additional 8,602 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Centennial Wealth Advisory LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 11.5% during the 3rd quarter. Centennial Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 4,870 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,096,000 after purchasing an additional 501 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.1 %

MSFT stock opened at $432.53 on Thursday. Microsoft has a fifty-two week low of $334.69 and a fifty-two week high of $468.35. The company has a market capitalization of $3.22 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.90. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $421.01 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $424.70. 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 (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $2.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.90 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $64.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.38 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.96% and a return on equity of 35.95%. The business’s revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.69 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 13.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Monday, September 16th that permits the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the software giant to purchase up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 28.11%.

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.