Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Given Outperform Rating at Raymond James

Raymond James reiterated their outperform rating on shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) in a research report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. Raymond James currently has a $480.00 price target on the software giant’s stock, up from their previous price target of $450.00.

A number of other research firms have also commented on MSFT. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on Microsoft from $465.00 to $489.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Friday. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $485.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Friday. Truist Financial reissued a buy rating and set a $600.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, March 25th. StockNews.com lowered Microsoft from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on Microsoft from $480.00 to $475.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $452.61.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.8 %

MSFT stock opened at $406.32 on Friday. Microsoft has a twelve month low of $295.25 and a twelve month high of $430.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The firm has a market cap of $3.02 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.89. The business has a 50 day moving average of $414.48 and a 200 day moving average of $387.70.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.87% and a net margin of 36.43%. The company had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.86 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.45 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 11.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.74%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.97%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total value of $18,530,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 574,129 shares in the company, valued at approximately $236,414,839.62. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $406.12, for a total value of $1,341,414.36. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 570,826 shares in the company, valued at approximately $231,823,855.12. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total value of $18,530,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 574,129 shares in the company, valued at $236,414,839.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. now owns 24,887 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,359,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares during the last quarter. Bailard Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Bailard Inc. now owns 470,301 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $148,497,000 after purchasing an additional 5,366 shares during the last quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 10.4% in the fourth quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC now owns 69,053 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $25,967,000 after acquiring an additional 6,484 shares during the last quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 7.7% in the third quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 17,471 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,516,000 after acquiring an additional 1,245 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bensler LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 3.2% in the third quarter. Bensler LLC now owns 86,932 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $27,449,000 after acquiring an additional 2,674 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.