Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Trading Up 0.4% on Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) were up 0.4% during trading on Thursday after Tigress Financial raised their price target on the stock from $550.00 to $595.00. Tigress Financial currently has a buy rating on the stock. Microsoft traded as high as $391.79 and last traded at $389.43. Approximately 3,340,312 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 83% from the average daily volume of 19,204,838 shares. The stock had previously closed at $387.82.

MSFT has been the subject of several other research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $509.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, January 24th. DA Davidson raised shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $425.00 to $450.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Microsoft from $540.00 to $530.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Three 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 $510.59.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ball & Co Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 35.7% in the third quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 95 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the period. IFS Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 53.8% in the fourth quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 100 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the period. Finally, LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at about $44,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.1 %

The company’s 50-day moving average price is $408.82 and its 200-day moving average price is $419.65. The firm has a market cap of $2.91 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 33.36%. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.93 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.73%.

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.