Bank of America Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock Price

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price target lowered by equities research analysts at Bank of America from $510.00 to $480.00 in a research note issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the software giant’s stock. Bank of America‘s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 23.67% from the stock’s current price.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 7th. DA Davidson upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $425.00 to $450.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Scotiabank began coverage on Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $470.00 target price on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $475.00 price target (down from $500.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Microsoft from $540.00 to $530.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Four 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.com, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $502.83.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT traded up $0.32 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $388.13. 7,733,167 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 21,190,032. Microsoft has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $468.35. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $391.38 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $414.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.35. The company has a market cap of $2.89 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 33.36%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.93 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Ball & Co Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth approximately $38,000. IFS Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 53.8% during the fourth quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 100 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Finally, Avondale Wealth Management lifted its stake in Microsoft by 144.4% in the fourth quarter. Avondale Wealth Management now owns 110 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.