Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Down 1%

by · The Markets Daily

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) was down 1% on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $420.30 and last traded at $421.98. Approximately 4,132,449 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 81% from the average daily volume of 21,975,627 shares. The stock had previously closed at $426.28.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on MSFT shares. Raymond James raised their price target on Microsoft from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, March 15th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Microsoft from $465.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 1st. Wedbush lifted their target price on Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, March 25th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $427.57.

View Our Latest Stock Analysis on Microsoft

Microsoft Stock Down 1.2 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a current ratio of 1.22. The company has a market cap of $3.13 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.89. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $413.98 and a 200-day simple moving average of $380.23.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.76 by $0.17. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.40% and a net margin of 36.27%. The business had revenue of $62.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $61.14 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.32 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 11.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.12%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total value of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,538,265.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total value of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,538,265.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total value of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,770,926.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,070,258 shares of company stock valued at $30,690,456 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 112,158.6% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 150,187,424 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $36,017,948,000 after buying an additional 150,053,637 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,920,047,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $9,625,201,000. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 35,465.9% during the first quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 20,611,140 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $66,852,000 after buying an additional 20,553,188 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Microsoft by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 664,908,939 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $250,032,357,000 after buying an additional 15,701,937 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

About Microsoft

(Get Free Report)

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.

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