Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Earns “Overweight” Rating from Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler reaffirmed their overweight rating on shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $485.00 target price on the software giant’s stock, up from their previous target price of $465.00.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on MSFT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. UBS Group reaffirmed a buy rating and issued a $480.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $495.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, June 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $485.53.

Microsoft Price Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $418.40 on Tuesday. Microsoft has a 52 week low of $309.45 and a 52 week high of $468.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The stock has a market cap of $3.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $440.43 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $419.98.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 37.54%. The firm had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.86 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.45 EPS. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 11.77 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.72%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.97%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $425.68, for a total transaction 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were 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 directly owns 104,949 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,674,690.32. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 322 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $416.60, for a total transaction of $134,145.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly 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 worth $10,877,535 in the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased 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 purchasing an additional 3,078,099 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,920,047,000. Capital International Investors boosted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 842,884 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth approximately $9,625,201,000. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC boosted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 277,881 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by 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.