Morgan Stanley Lowers Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target to $530.00

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price objective decreased by stock analysts at Morgan Stanley from $540.00 to $530.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the software giant’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective points to a potential upside of 27.69% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on MSFT. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their target price on shares of Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $525.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $509.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday. Finally, TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $510.96.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT opened at $415.06 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $3.09 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.42, a PEG ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.90. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $432.56 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $424.88. Microsoft has a 1-year low of $385.58 and a 1-year high of $468.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 34.38%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.93 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Microsoft will post 12.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total transaction of $1,118,525.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 49,352 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,080,578.32. This represents a 4.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $417.00, for a total transaction of $10,425,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $48,911,598. The trade was a 17.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 41,200 shares of company stock valued at $17,383,892 in the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its stake in Microsoft by 27.0% during the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $427,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,658,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Nicholas Investment Partners LP grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 3.0% during the 2nd quarter. Nicholas Investment Partners LP now owns 39,743 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $17,763,000 after purchasing an additional 1,164 shares during the last quarter. Crew Capital Management Ltd. raised its position in Microsoft by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Crew Capital Management Ltd. now owns 10,860 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,854,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares during the period. Finally, Wealth Advisory Solutions LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 0.3% in the second quarter. Wealth Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 12,379 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,533,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. 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.