Wedbush Reiterates “Outperform” Rating for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Wedbush in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $550.00 price objective on the software giant’s stock. Wedbush’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 40.57% from the company’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on MSFT. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on Microsoft from $515.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 7th. StockNews.com lowered Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Mizuho cut their target price on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced 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. Three equities 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, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $510.59.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of MSFT opened at $391.26 on Thursday. Microsoft has a 12 month low of $376.91 and a 12 month high of $468.35. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $408.82 and its two-hundred day moving average is $419.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The stock has a market cap 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 (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 previous year, the firm posted $2.93 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Ball & Co Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth approximately $31,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at $38,000. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 35.7% in the third quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 95 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 25 shares during the period. IFS Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 53.8% during the fourth quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 100 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares during the period. Finally, LSV Asset Management acquired a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth about $44,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.