Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) PT Raised to $500.00 at BMO Capital Markets

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price target boosted by BMO Capital Markets from $465.00 to $500.00 in a research report report published on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the software giant’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $450.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a buy rating and issued a $455.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Macquarie boosted their target price on Microsoft from $460.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an outperform rating and issued a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, May 24th. Finally, Truist Financial restated a buy rating and issued a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $470.86.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.3 %

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $453.55 on Friday. Microsoft has a fifty-two week low of $309.45 and a fifty-two week high of $468.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.37 trillion, a PE ratio of 39.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.89. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $435.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $416.36.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a return on equity of 37.54% and a net margin of 36.43%. The business had revenue of $61.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.86 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.45 EPS. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft will post 11.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be issued a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 25.97%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 322 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $416.60, for a total value of $134,145.20. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 47,255 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,686,433. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $425.68, for a total transaction of $10,642,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 104,949 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,674,690.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 322 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $416.60, for a total value of $134,145.20. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 47,255 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,686,433. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 25,566 shares of company stock valued at $10,877,535 in the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 667,987,038 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $281,035,506,000 after buying an additional 3,078,099 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth $35,920,047,000. Capital International Investors lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 83,571,070 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $35,160,020,000 after buying an additional 842,884 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth $9,625,201,000. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 25,505,600 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,591,126,000 after buying an additional 277,881 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.