Scotiabank Initiates Coverage on Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Investment analysts at Scotiabank assumed coverage on shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) in a research report issued on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm set a “sector outperform” rating and a $470.00 price target on the software giant’s stock. Scotiabank’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 20.12% from the company’s previous close.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Microsoft from $540.00 to $530.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 7th. Guggenheim restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, January 24th. Loop Capital lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $520.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $510.59.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT stock opened at $391.26 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The company has a market capitalization of $2.91 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92. Microsoft has a 12-month low of $376.91 and a 12-month high of $468.35. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $408.82 and its 200 day moving average price is $419.65.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.93 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% during the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $427,000 after buying an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,658,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 2,799,261 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,204,664,000 after purchasing an additional 49,735 shares during the last quarter. Czech National Bank increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 6.9% during the 3rd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 1,514,189 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $651,556,000 after purchasing an additional 97,893 shares during the last quarter. Finally, waypoint wealth counsel grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. waypoint wealth counsel now owns 15,894 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,839,000 after acquiring an additional 696 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

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.