Wedbush Reiterates Outperform Rating for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Wedbush restated their outperform rating on shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) in a report released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. Wedbush currently has a $500.00 price objective on the software giant’s stock.

Several other research firms have also issued reports on MSFT. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. KeyCorp initiated coverage on Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. They set an overweight rating and a $490.00 target price on the stock. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $485.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a buy rating and issued a $455.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Three 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.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $454.70.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.7 %

MSFT opened at $430.16 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $416.36 and a 200 day moving average of $398.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Microsoft has a 12 month low of $309.45 and a 12 month high of $433.60. The firm has a market cap of $3.20 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.24, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.89.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a return on equity of 37.54% and a net margin of 36.43%. The firm had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.86 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.45 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 11.77 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.97%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $425.68, for a total transaction of $10,642,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 104,949 shares in the company, valued at $44,674,690.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Microsoft news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $425.68, for a total transaction of $10,642,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 104,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,674,690.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Financial Security Advisor Inc. raised its position in Microsoft by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Financial Security Advisor Inc. now owns 27,270 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $10,255,000 after buying an additional 452 shares during the last quarter. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% during the fourth 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. Rappaport Reiches Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 14.9% during the fourth quarter. Rappaport Reiches Capital Management LLC now owns 8,213 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,089,000 after purchasing an additional 1,067 shares during the period. Bailard Inc. boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 1.2% in the third quarter. Bailard Inc. now owns 470,301 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $148,497,000 after purchasing an additional 5,366 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RNC Capital Management LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 10.4% during the 4th quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC now owns 69,053 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $25,967,000 after purchasing an additional 6,484 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.