Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Sets New 1-Year Low – Here’s Why

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares reached a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $381.00 and last traded at $384.79, with a volume of 2698932 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $388.49.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on MSFT. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $525.00 to $510.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Microsoft from $540.00 to $530.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. StockNews.com cut Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $425.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $510.96.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.5 %

The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $419.75 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $422.59. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.84 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.76, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.90. 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 posted its 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 33.36%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.93 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total value of $1,118,525.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 49,352 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,080,578.32. The trade was a 4.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. American Investment Services Inc. increased its stake in Microsoft by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. American Investment Services Inc. now owns 1,270 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $535,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the period. Cim LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Cim LLC now owns 12,483 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,262,000 after acquiring an additional 495 shares in the last quarter. BridgePort Financial Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth $4,526,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at $3,882,000. Finally, Menard Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC now owns 11,565 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,875,000 after purchasing an additional 241 shares during the period. 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.