Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Given Buy Rating at Truist Financial

Truist Financial reissued their buy rating on shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) in a research report released on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. Truist Financial currently has a $600.00 target price on the software giant’s stock.

MSFT has been the topic of several other research reports. Argus boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $390.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 5th. Wedbush restated an outperform rating and issued a $450.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, January 29th. China Renaissance started coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, December 5th. They issued a buy rating and a $466.00 price target on the stock. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Microsoft from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and set a $471.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Finally, Macquarie boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $430.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $423.34.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.1 %

Microsoft stock opened at $421.43 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $3.13 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.09, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 1.20. Microsoft has a 1 year low of $272.05 and a 1 year high of $430.82. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $409.64 and its 200-day moving average price is $373.65.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.76 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $62.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $61.14 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.27% and a return on equity of 38.40%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.32 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Microsoft will post 11.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 27.12%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total transaction of $18,530,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 574,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $236,414,839.62. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total transaction of $18,530,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 574,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $236,414,839.62. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $406.12, for a total transaction of $1,341,414.36. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 570,826 shares in the company, valued at approximately $231,823,855.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,070,258 shares of company stock valued at $30,690,456 in the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 664,908,939 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $250,032,357,000 after purchasing an additional 15,701,937 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in Microsoft by 0.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 295,509,547 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $68,824,173,000 after acquiring an additional 1,951,554 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 2.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 215,874,152 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $68,162,263,000 after acquiring an additional 5,762,902 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in Microsoft by 0.3% in the second quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 195,859,819 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $50,302,677,000 after acquiring an additional 556,020 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 112,158.6% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 150,187,424 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $36,017,948,000 after acquiring an additional 150,053,637 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.