Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Given New $335.00 Price Target at The Goldman Sachs Group

Posted by Defense World Staff on Apr 27th, 2023

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) had its price objective lifted by The Goldman Sachs Group from $325.00 to $335.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Marketbeat reports. They currently have a buy rating on the software giant’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also commented on MSFT. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Microsoft from $295.00 to $337.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $280.00 to $322.00 in a report on Monday. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $316.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Thursday, April 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and thirty-three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $322.88.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $295.37 on Wednesday. Microsoft has a one year low of $213.43 and a one year high of $299.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.20 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.82, a PEG ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.93. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $271.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $252.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 1.93 and a quick ratio of 1.89.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.22 by $0.23. Microsoft had a return on equity of 39.87% and a net margin of 33.05%. The business had revenue of $52.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $51.01 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.22 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 9.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be issued a $0.68 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.92%. Microsoft’s 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 shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total value of $1,186,410.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total value of $1,186,410.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 116,362 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,687,699.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 6,767 shares of company stock valued at $1,728,111. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Affiance Financial LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 0.3% during the first quarter. Affiance Financial LLC now owns 10,362 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,988,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the period. Henrickson Nauta Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Microsoft by 1.3% during the first quarter. Henrickson Nauta Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 2,898 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $835,000 after buying an additional 36 shares during the period. Rede Wealth LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 0.4% during the first quarter. Rede Wealth LLC now owns 9,653 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,783,000 after buying an additional 37 shares during the period. Sentinel Pension Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Microsoft by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Sentinel Pension Advisors Inc. now owns 3,746 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $898,000 after buying an additional 39 shares during the period. Finally, Rovin Capital UT ADV boosted its position in Microsoft by 1.1% during the third quarter. Rovin Capital UT ADV now owns 3,747 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $873,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Company Profile

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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.