Piper Sandler Reaffirms “Overweight” Rating for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reissued by analysts at Piper Sandler in a report released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $470.00 price target on the software giant’s stock. Piper Sandler’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 14.53% from the stock’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Argus raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $526.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. TD Cowen raised their target price on Microsoft from $470.00 to $495.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $506.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twenty-six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $503.03.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $410.37 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.05 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.86, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.90. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $420.69 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $424.55. Microsoft has a one year low of $344.77 and a one year high of $468.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 1.27.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.08 by $0.22. Microsoft had a return on equity of 35.73% and a net margin of 35.61%. The firm had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.99 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Microsoft will post 13.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft announced that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Monday, September 16th that permits the company to buyback $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the software giant to reacquire up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.04, for a total value of $1,027,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 50,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,552,000. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.59, for a total value of $16,103,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 544,847 shares in the company, valued at $219,349,953.73. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.04, for a total transaction of $1,027,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 50,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,552,000. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 190,629 shares of company stock worth $77,916,485 over the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. New Harbor Financial Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 55.9% during the 2nd quarter. New Harbor Financial Group LLC now owns 1,255 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $561,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares during the period. Meeder Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Microsoft by 25.7% during the second quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 250,657 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $112,031,000 after buying an additional 51,273 shares during the period. AMG National Trust Bank increased its holdings in Microsoft by 19.0% during the second quarter. AMG National Trust Bank now owns 81,502 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $36,427,000 after buying an additional 12,994 shares during the last quarter. True Link Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 296.7% in the first quarter. True Link Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,027 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,274,000 after acquiring an additional 2,264 shares during the period. Finally, Spinnaker Investment Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. Spinnaker Investment Group LLC now owns 12,521 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,268,000 after acquiring an additional 326 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.