Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Trading Down 1.7% on Analyst Downgrade

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s stock price dropped 1.7% on Friday after Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on the stock from $515.00 to $475.00. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the stock. Microsoft traded as low as $388.33 and last traded at $390.04. Approximately 5,840,652 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 74% from the average daily volume of 22,692,455 shares. The stock had previously closed at $396.89.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on MSFT. StockNews.com cut Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $520.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, January 27th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Microsoft from $540.00 to $530.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $425.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Guggenheim reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, January 24th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $509.54.

Insider Activity

In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total value of $1,118,525.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 49,352 shares in the company, valued at $22,080,578.32. This represents a 4.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. BCK Partners Inc. boosted its stake in Microsoft by 1.8% in the third quarter. BCK Partners Inc. now owns 1,353 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $582,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Muirfield Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Muirfield Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,427 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,866,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the period. Retirement Financial Solutions LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Retirement Financial Solutions LLC now owns 1,050 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $443,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the period. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.8% during the third quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 2,997 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,290,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. Finally, Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 35.7% during the third quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 95 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $39,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.9 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The firm has a market cap of $2.92 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $416.40 and a 200-day moving average price of $421.87.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.93 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.