Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) had its price objective boosted by Jefferies Financial Group from $325.00 to $350.00 in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday morning, The Fly reports. They currently have a buy rating on the software giant’s stock.
Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on MSFT. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Microsoft from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and upped their price target for the company from $325.00 to $347.00 in a report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $285.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, March 17th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Microsoft from $300.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Friday, March 24th. Wedbush increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $290.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 12th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their target price on Microsoft from $316.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, April 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and thirty-three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $322.88.
Microsoft Stock Performance
Microsoft stock opened at $295.37 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 1.93 and a quick ratio of 1.89. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $271.70 and its 200 day moving average price is $252.46. The company has a market capitalization of $2.20 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.93. Microsoft has a 12-month low of $213.43 and a 12-month high of $299.57.
Microsoft Announces Dividend
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be issued a $0.68 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.92%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 30.22%.
Insider Transactions at Microsoft
In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total transaction of $1,186,410.96. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 28th. The stock was 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 owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total transaction of $272,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,687,699.84. 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 three months. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.
Institutional Trading of Microsoft
A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MSFT. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd boosted its position in Microsoft by 199.7% during the 3rd quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd now owns 107,705 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $25,356,000 after acquiring an additional 71,769 shares during the period. Seascape Capital Management lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 41.9% in the third quarter. Seascape Capital Management now owns 2,908 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $677,000 after purchasing an additional 858 shares in the last quarter. BlackDiamond Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 9.2% during the third quarter. BlackDiamond Wealth Management Inc. now owns 7,751 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,943,000 after purchasing an additional 650 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its position in Microsoft by 1.4% during the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 2,789,479 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $649,670,000 after purchasing an additional 37,545 shares in the last quarter. Finally, RMR Wealth Builders increased its stake in Microsoft by 9.0% in the 3rd quarter. RMR Wealth Builders now owns 35,150 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $8,186,000 after buying an additional 2,894 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.
About Microsoft
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.
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