Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) had its price target trimmed by Wolfe Research from $280.00 to $265.00 in a report published on Wednesday, The Fly reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the software giant's stock.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on MSFT. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Microsoft from $325.00 to $307.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 26th. DA Davidson assumed coverage on Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, January 4th. They issued a buy rating and a $270.00 target price for the company. Macquarie initiated coverage on Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, November 2nd. They issued a neutral rating and a $234.00 target price for the company. Credit Suisse Group set a $365.00 price target on Microsoft in a report on Friday, December 9th. Finally, Cowen dropped their price target on Microsoft from $285.00 to $280.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and twenty-eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $283.09.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT opened at $248.16 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $241.97 and a 200-day moving average of $249.34. Microsoft has a 52-week low of $213.43 and a 52-week high of $315.95. The company has a market cap of $1.85 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 1.79 and a current ratio of 1.93.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 9th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.68 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 15th. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.10%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio is currently 30.22%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 24,144 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $254.27, for a total transaction of $6,139,094.88. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 150,047 shares of the company's stock, valued at $38,152,450.69. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Phoenix Wealth Advisors lifted its position in Microsoft by 2.0% during the second quarter. Phoenix Wealth Advisors now owns 17,286 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $4,440,000 after purchasing an additional 343 shares during the last quarter. Jmac Enterprises LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% in the second quarter. Jmac Enterprises LLC now owns 16,798 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $4,314,000 after acquiring an additional 169 shares during the period. ARGI Investment Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 9.9% in the second quarter. ARGI Investment Services LLC now owns 37,326 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $9,586,000 after acquiring an additional 3,358 shares during the period. First PREMIER Bank raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the second quarter. First PREMIER Bank now owns 26,082 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $6,699,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares during the period. Finally, Seaview Investment Managers LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 4.9% in the second quarter. Seaview Investment Managers LLC now owns 26,839 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $6,893,000 after acquiring an additional 1,261 shares during the period. 69.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Microsoft Company Profile

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Microsoft Corp. engages in the development and support of software, services, devices, and solutions. It operates through the following business segments: Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. The Productivity and Business Processes segment consists of Office Commercial (Office 365 subscriptions, the Office 365 portion of Microsoft 365 Commercial subscriptions, and Office licensed on-premises), Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, and Skype for Business, Office Consumer, including Microsoft 365 Consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other Office services, LinkedIn, including Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions, Premium Subscriptions, Sales Solutions, and Learning Solutions, Dynamics business solutions, including Dynamics 365, comprising a set of intelligent, cloud-based applications across ERP, CRM, Customer Insights, Power Apps, and Power Automate, and on-premises ERP and CRM applications.

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