Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target Cut to $475.00 by Analysts at Citigroup

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price objective decreased by equities research analysts at Citigroup from $480.00 to $475.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the software giant’s stock. Citigroup’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 15.74% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts have also commented on MSFT. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Microsoft from $460.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, March 25th. Macquarie increased their price objective on Microsoft from $430.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $480.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $432.13.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT traded down $1.42 during trading on Thursday, hitting $410.42. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 5,512,153 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,650,094. Microsoft has a 52 week low of $275.37 and a 52 week high of $430.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The firm has a market cap of $3.05 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.89. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $415.48 and a 200 day moving average price of $384.15.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.76 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $62.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $61.14 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.27% and a return on equity of 38.40%. The business’s revenue was up 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.32 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 11.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total transaction of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,770,926.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total value of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at $22,770,926.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total value of $18,530,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 574,129 shares in the company, valued at approximately $236,414,839.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Monumental Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the first quarter worth about $28,000. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Bellevue Group AG bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at $46,000. Neo Ivy Capital Management bought a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth $58,000. Finally, Richardson Capital Management LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 1,290.0% in the first quarter. Richardson Capital Management LLC now owns 139 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 129 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by 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.