Scotiabank Begins Coverage on Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Equities researchers at Scotiabank initiated coverage on shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The firm set a “sector outperform” rating and a $470.00 price target on the software giant’s stock. Scotiabank’s price target suggests a potential upside of 21.19% from the company’s current price.

Several other research analysts have also commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $515.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Mizuho decreased their price target on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $509.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, DA Davidson raised shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $425.00 to $450.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $509.03.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.1 %

MSFT opened at $387.82 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $410.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $420.08. Microsoft has a 52 week low of $376.91 and a 52 week high of $468.35. The firm has a market cap of $2.88 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.23, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.93 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% in the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $427,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares during the period. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. lifted its position in Microsoft by 0.3% in the second quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,658,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. AMF Tjanstepension AB boosted its stake in Microsoft by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 2,799,261 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,204,664,000 after purchasing an additional 49,735 shares in the last quarter. Czech National Bank increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 6.9% during the 3rd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 1,514,189 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $651,556,000 after purchasing an additional 97,893 shares during the period. Finally, waypoint wealth counsel raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. waypoint wealth counsel now owns 15,894 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,839,000 after buying an additional 696 shares in 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.