Microsoft’s (MSFT) “Overweight” Rating Reaffirmed at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler reaffirmed their overweight rating on shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) in a research note released on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $465.00 price target on the software giant’s stock, up from their previous price target of $455.00.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on MSFT. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Microsoft from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Friday. UBS Group reaffirmed a buy rating and issued a $480.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Macquarie raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $430.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Raymond James lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $452.61.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of MSFT opened at $406.32 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $414.48 and its 200 day moving average is $387.70. Microsoft has a fifty-two week low of $295.25 and a fifty-two week high of $430.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.02 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.18, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a current ratio of 1.22.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 38.87%. The firm had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.86 billion. The business’s revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.45 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft will post 11.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.97%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated 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 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 filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated 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 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 filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were 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 approximately $64,538,265.44. 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 owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth approximately $35,920,047,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth approximately $9,625,201,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in 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 buying an additional 15,701,937 shares during the period. TCI Fund Management Ltd. acquired a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth approximately $4,000,376,000. Finally, FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 215,874,152 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $68,162,263,000 after purchasing an additional 5,762,902 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.