Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) had its target price reduced by Wedbush from $290.00 to $280.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning, The Fly reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the software giant's stock. Wedbush also issued estimates for Microsoft's Q3 2023 earnings at $2.15 EPS, Q4 2023 earnings at $2.66 EPS, Q1 2024 earnings at $2.75 EPS, Q2 2024 earnings at $2.74 EPS, Q3 2024 earnings at $2.58 EPS, Q4 2024 earnings at $2.73 EPS and FY2024 earnings at $10.81 EPS.
Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. UBS Group set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 19th. Guggenheim downgraded shares of Microsoft from a neutral rating to a sell rating and set a $212.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, January 17th. Royal Bank of Canada set a $285.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, January 18th. Cowen reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $310.00 to $285.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 26th. Finally, Macquarie began coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, November 2nd. They set a neutral rating and a $234.00 price target for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $283.09.
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Microsoft Stock Performance
Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $248.16 on Wednesday. Microsoft has a 1 year low of $213.43 and a 1 year high of $315.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 1.79 and a current ratio of 1.93. The company's fifty day moving average price is $241.83 and its 200 day moving average price is $249.46. The company has a market capitalization of $1.85 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.94.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $52.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $53.17 billion. Microsoft had a net
margin of 33.05% and a return on equity of 39.87%. The company's revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.48 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Microsoft will post 9.43 earnings per share for the current year.
Microsoft Announces Dividend
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 9th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 16th will be paid a $0.68 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 15th. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.10%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.22%.
Insider Activity
In related news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 24,144 shares of the 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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 150,047 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $38,152,450.69. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.
Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft
A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Monumental Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Microsoft in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. boosted its position in Microsoft by 71.4% in the 3rd quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 132 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the period. Retirement Financial Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, Macroview Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $61,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.15% of the company's stock.
About Microsoft
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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.
Further Reading
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