Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Trading Down 0.8%

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares traded down 0.8% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $417.30 and last traded at $417.82. 6,854,989 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 67% from the average session volume of 20,914,117 shares. The stock had previously closed at $421.03.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on MSFT. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Bank of America raised their target price on Microsoft from $480.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Mizuho increased their price target on Microsoft from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $485.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $494.72.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.6 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a current ratio of 1.27. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $436.82 and a 200-day simple moving average of $422.11. The firm has a market cap of $3.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.90.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $2.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.90 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $64.73 billion during 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%. The business’s revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.69 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.04 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.97%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $425.68, for a total value of $10,642,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 104,949 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,674,690.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 244 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 3rd. The stock was 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 approximately $19,534,480.83. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $425.68, for a total value of $10,642,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 104,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $44,674,690.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 25,566 shares of company stock valued at $10,877,535 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at about $35,920,047,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $9,625,201,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings 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 valued at $250,032,357,000 after acquiring an additional 15,701,937 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in Microsoft during the 1st quarter valued at $5,587,119,000. Finally, TCI Fund Management Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at about $4,000,376,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

About Microsoft

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.