Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Trading Up 1.4% on Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) rose 1.4% during mid-day trading on Friday after Morgan Stanley raised their price target on the stock from $506.00 to $548.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Microsoft traded as high as $412.66 and last traded at $411.90. Approximately 8,147,333 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 60% from the average daily volume of 20,345,996 shares. The stock had previously closed at $406.35.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on MSFT. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Oppenheimer lowered Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $470.00 to $495.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Wells Fargo & Company restated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and twenty-six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $503.03.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 786,933 shares in the company, valued at $328,473,703.53. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.04, for a total transaction of $1,027,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 50,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,552,000. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 23rd. The stock was 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 trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 190,629 shares of company stock valued at $77,916,485. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Epiq Partners LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 55.6% during the 1st quarter. Epiq Partners LLC now owns 3,124 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,314,000 after purchasing an additional 1,116 shares in the last quarter. Cairn Investment Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% in the first quarter. Cairn Investment Group Inc. now owns 3,173 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,335,000 after buying an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Sandbox Financial Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 5.5% during the first quarter. Sandbox Financial Partners LLC now owns 37,305 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $15,695,000 after buying an additional 1,952 shares during the period. Sar Wealth Management Group LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 49.3% during the first quarter. Sar Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 4,271 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,797,000 after acquiring an additional 1,411 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Signet Financial Management LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 4.0% in the 1st quarter. Signet Financial Management LLC now owns 29,387 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $12,364,000 after acquiring an additional 1,133 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.0 %

The company has a market cap of $3.05 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.90. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $420.69 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $424.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.08 by $0.22. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 35.73%. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.99 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a $0.83 dividend. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.75%.

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

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.