Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Rating Reiterated by Piper Sandler

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reaffirmed by equities researchers at Piper Sandler in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $465.00 target price on the software giant’s stock, up from their previous target price of $455.00. Piper Sandler’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 14.44% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research firms have also commented on MSFT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. BNP Paribas raised shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $471.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, March 25th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $480.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $452.61.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $406.32 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 1.20. The firm has a market cap of $3.02 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a 50-day moving average of $414.48 and a two-hundred day moving average of $388.12. Microsoft has a 1-year low of $295.25 and a 1-year high of $430.82.

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

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total value of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total value of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total transaction of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,770,926.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456 in the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC now owns 14,103 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,453,000 after buying an additional 68 shares during the period. Caliber Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Caliber Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,888 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,806,000 after buying an additional 316 shares during the period. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 65,525 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $20,689,000 after buying an additional 844 shares during the period. McGuire Investment Group LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. McGuire Investment Group LLC now owns 52,388 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $16,541,000 after buying an additional 1,922 shares during the period. Finally, Kentucky Retirement Systems acquired a new position in Microsoft in the 3rd quarter valued at $188,066,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.