JPMorgan Chase & Co. Increases Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target to $470.00

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price objective upped by research analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $440.00 to $470.00 in a research report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “overweight” rating on the software giant’s stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s price objective points to a potential upside of 15.67% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research analysts have also recently weighed in on MSFT. Raymond James raised their price target on Microsoft from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Macquarie raised their price target on Microsoft from $430.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and issued a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, March 15th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $455.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $480.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $452.61.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $406.32 on Friday. Microsoft has a fifty-two week low of $295.25 and a fifty-two week high of $430.82. The stock has a market cap of $3.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.18, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.89. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $414.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $388.12. The company has a quick ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.87% and a net margin of 36.43%. The business had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.86 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.45 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 11.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total value of $1,950,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,770,926.10. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $406.12, for a total value of $1,341,414.36. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 570,826 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $231,823,855.12. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total value of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at $22,770,926.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock valued at $30,690,456 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Microsoft by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 664,908,939 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $250,032,357,000 after acquiring an additional 15,701,937 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 215,874,152 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $68,162,263,000 after acquiring an additional 5,762,902 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,920,047,000. Barclays PLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 9.3% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 28,987,007 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,152,647,000 after acquiring an additional 2,456,190 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth approximately $9,625,201,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.