Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Upgraded at Cantor Fitzgerald

Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) to a strong-buy rating in a research report released on Thursday morning, Marketbeat reports. The firm currently has $509.00 target price on the software giant’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on MSFT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Microsoft from $470.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $512.93.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $429.03 on Thursday. Microsoft has a one year low of $385.58 and a one year high of $468.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $429.32 and its 200-day moving average price is $426.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.19 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.90.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The firm had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.57 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.99 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 12.92 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.77%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 27.39%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 49,352 shares in the company, valued at $22,080,578.32. This trade represents a 4.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total value of $3,050,352.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. The trade was a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892 in the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Net Worth Advisory Group purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $2,645,000. Oak Ridge Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 263,534 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $113,399,000 after purchasing an additional 18,544 shares during the period. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 1,975,200 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $882,816,000 after purchasing an additional 31,401 shares during the period. Jacobs & Co. CA lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA now owns 96,021 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $41,318,000 after purchasing an additional 880 shares during the period. Finally, Focus Financial Network Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 76,296 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $32,830,000 after purchasing an additional 1,489 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

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.