Royal Bank of Canada Reiterates Outperform Rating for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating restated by Royal Bank of Canada in a research report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $285.00 price objective on the software giant’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 1.99% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group set a $310.00 price target on Microsoft in a research note on Monday, February 27th. Credit Suisse Group set a $285.00 price target on Microsoft in a report on Thursday, March 2nd. Wedbush increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 24th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $265.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. set a $305.00 price target on shares of Microsoft and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $286.05.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT opened at $279.43 on Friday. Microsoft has a 52 week low of $213.43 and a 52 week high of $315.95. The company has a quick ratio of 1.89, a current ratio of 1.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The stock has a market cap of $2.08 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.05, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 0.92. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $252.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $245.43.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $52.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $53.17 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.05% and a return on equity of 39.87%. The firm’s revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.48 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Microsoft will post 9.34 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.38, for a total transaction of $269,380.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 117,362 shares in the company, valued at $31,614,975.56. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.38, for a total transaction of $269,380.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 117,362 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,614,975.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total transaction of $1,186,410.96. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 6,767 shares of company stock valued at $1,728,111 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Walled Lake Planning & Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 0.5% during the second quarter. Walled Lake Planning & Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,369 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,893,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Financial Advisors Network Inc. grew its holdings in Microsoft by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Financial Advisors Network Inc. now owns 3,482 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $894,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Sentinel Pension Advisors Inc. increased its position in Microsoft by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Sentinel Pension Advisors Inc. now owns 3,746 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $898,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares during the period. Donoghue Forlines LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.6% during the second quarter. Donoghue Forlines LLC now owns 2,598 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $667,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rovin Capital UT ADV grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% in the third quarter. Rovin Capital UT ADV now owns 3,747 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $873,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Company Profile

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Microsoft Corp. engages in the development and support of software, services, devices, and solutions. It operates through the following business segments: Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. The Productivity and Business Processes segment consists of Office Commercial (Office 365 subscriptions, the Office 365 portion of Microsoft 365 Commercial subscriptions, and Office licensed on-premises), Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, and Skype for Business, Office Consumer, including Microsoft 365 Consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other Office services, LinkedIn, including Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions, Premium Subscriptions, Sales Solutions, and Learning Solutions, Dynamics business solutions, including Dynamics 365, comprising a set of intelligent, cloud-based applications across ERP, CRM, Customer Insights, Power Apps, and Power Automate, and on-premises ERP and CRM applications.