Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Coverage Initiated at Cantor Fitzgerald

Stock analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald assumed coverage on shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) in a report issued on Friday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The brokerage set an “overweight” rating and a $509.00 price target on the software giant’s stock. Cantor Fitzgerald’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 19.88% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on MSFT. Citigroup dropped their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. DA Davidson cut Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $495.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $511.53.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT opened at $424.58 on Friday. Microsoft has a 52 week low of $384.81 and a 52 week high of $468.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The firm has a market cap of $3.16 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.03, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.90. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $429.21 and a 200-day moving average of $426.58.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.99 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 12.92 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $417.00, for a total value of $10,425,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 117,294 shares in the company, valued at approximately $48,911,598. This represents a 17.57 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total transaction of $1,118,525.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 49,352 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,080,578.32. The trade was a 4.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892 in the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH boosted its position in Microsoft by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 2,094,318 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $882,755,000 after acquiring an additional 27,286 shares during the period. JBGlobal.com LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth approximately $309,000. Wall Street Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 15.9% during the fourth quarter. Wall Street Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,912 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $806,000 after purchasing an additional 263 shares during the period. Exchange Bank grew its position in Microsoft by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Exchange Bank now owns 9,676 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,078,000 after purchasing an additional 169 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Atomi Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Microsoft by 38.2% in the 4th quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. now owns 86,370 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $36,405,000 after buying an additional 23,868 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.