Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Given New $325.00 Price Target at Mizuho

Posted by Defense World Staff on Apr 27th, 2023

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) had its price objective hoisted by Mizuho from $315.00 to $325.00 in a report published on Wednesday morning, The Fly reports. They currently have a buy rating on the software giant’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on MSFT. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an outperform rating and issued a $285.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, March 17th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Microsoft from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday, April 14th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $310.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Wednesday. Rosenblatt Securities dropped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $285.00 to $275.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $300.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Friday, March 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and thirty-three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $322.88.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $295.37 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.89, a current ratio of 1.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $271.70 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $252.46. Microsoft has a 52-week low of $213.43 and a 52-week high of $299.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.20 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.93.

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

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Investors 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.92%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 30.22%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total transaction of $1,186,410.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total value of $272,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 116,362 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,687,699.84. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total value of $1,186,410.96. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111 over the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 1.0% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 634,238,715 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $147,714,197,000 after acquiring an additional 6,129,708 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Microsoft by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 295,509,547 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $68,824,173,000 after purchasing an additional 1,951,554 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 195,859,819 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $50,302,677,000 after buying an additional 556,020 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 112,158.6% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 150,187,424 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $36,017,948,000 after buying an additional 150,053,637 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 142,731,177 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $34,172,705,000 after buying an additional 3,268,917 shares during the last quarter. 69.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.

Analyst Recommendations for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

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