Microsoft’s (MSFT) Outperform Rating Reiterated at Wedbush

Wedbush reiterated their outperform rating on shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) in a research note published on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. Wedbush currently has a $550.00 target price on the software giant’s stock. Wedbush also issued estimates for Microsoft’s Q1 2025 earnings at $3.10 EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at $3.33 EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at $3.56 EPS, Q1 2026 earnings at $3.60 EPS, Q2 2026 earnings at $3.79 EPS, Q3 2026 earnings at $3.79 EPS, Q4 2026 earnings at $4.18 EPS and FY2026 earnings at $15.35 EPS.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Microsoft from $475.00 to $485.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $465.00 to $489.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $480.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. New Street Research began coverage on Microsoft in a research report on Monday, June 10th. They set a buy rating and a $570.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $455.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $487.33.

Microsoft Stock Down 2.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $408.49 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.04 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.90. Microsoft has a 12-month low of $309.45 and a 12-month high of $468.35. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $439.56 and its 200-day moving average price is $421.76.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $2.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.90 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $64.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.38 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 35.95% and a net margin of 35.96%. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.69 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 13.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 15th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 25.97%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $425.68, for a total transaction of $10,642,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 104,949 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,674,690.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $425.68, for a total transaction of $10,642,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 104,949 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,674,690.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 244 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $415.53, for a total transaction of $101,389.32. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 47,011 shares in the company, valued at $19,534,480.83. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 25,566 shares of company stock worth $10,877,535 in the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Rebalance LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Rebalance LLC now owns 3,451 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,542,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. First National Bank Sioux Falls grew its stake in Microsoft by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. First National Bank Sioux Falls now owns 6,340 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,834,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Johnson Bixby & Associates LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Johnson Bixby & Associates LLC now owns 6,481 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,727,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Morris Financial Concepts Inc. grew its stake in Microsoft by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Morris Financial Concepts Inc. now owns 2,663 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,001,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Innova Wealth Partners grew its stake in Microsoft by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Innova Wealth Partners now owns 4,239 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,594,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is 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.