Microsoft’s (MSFT) Overweight Rating Reiterated at Piper Sandler

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reaffirmed by research analysts at Piper Sandler in a research report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $485.00 price target on the software giant’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 14.68% from the stock’s current price.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on MSFT. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $480.00 price target (up from $450.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $520.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Argus boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $526.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, May 24th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $485.39.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $422.92 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The business’s 50 day moving average is $440.44 and its two-hundred day moving average is $421.45. The company has a market cap of $3.14 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.62, a P/E/G ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.89. Microsoft has a 12 month low of $309.45 and a 12 month high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $2.95 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.90 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $64.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.38 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 37.54% and a net margin of 36.43%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.69 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Microsoft will post 11.77 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $425.68, for a total value of $10,642,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 104,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $44,674,690.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 244 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $415.53, for a total transaction of $101,389.32. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 47,011 shares in the company, valued at $19,534,480.83. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $425.68, for a total value of $10,642,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 104,949 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,674,690.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 25,566 shares of company stock valued at $10,877,535 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sweet Financial Partners LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Sweet Financial Partners LLC now owns 15,174 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,706,000 after acquiring an additional 1,157 shares during the period. Conrad Siegel Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 8.1% in the 4th quarter. Conrad Siegel Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 4,990 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,876,000 after purchasing an additional 373 shares during the last quarter. Henrickson Nauta Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 13.9% in the 4th quarter. Henrickson Nauta Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 3,262 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,227,000 after purchasing an additional 398 shares during the last quarter. IAM Advisory LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. IAM Advisory LLC now owns 9,509 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,576,000 after purchasing an additional 163 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kraematon Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 17.1% in the 4th quarter. Kraematon Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 1,921 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $723,000 after purchasing an additional 280 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

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.