Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target Lowered to $500.00 at Jefferies Financial Group

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price target lowered by research analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from $550.00 to $500.00 in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the software giant’s stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s price target points to a potential upside of 32.00% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research analysts have also recently weighed in on MSFT. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $520.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $515.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $509.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Scotiabank initiated coverage on Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $470.00 price target on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $508.86.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT stock opened at $378.80 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The firm has a market cap of $2.82 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92. The business has a 50 day moving average of $405.52 and a 200-day moving average of $419.10. Microsoft has a 12-month low of $372.32 and a 12-month high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.93 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Net Worth Advisory Group purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 3rd quarter worth about $2,645,000. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC now owns 5,967 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,515,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 7.6% in the third quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 263,534 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $113,399,000 after buying an additional 18,544 shares in the last quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% in the third quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 76,296 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $32,830,000 after buying an additional 1,489 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Campbell Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the third quarter valued at approximately $3,314,000. 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.