Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target Increased to $350.00 by Analysts at Royal Bank of Canada

Posted by Defense World Staff on Apr 27th, 2023

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) had its price target hoisted by Royal Bank of Canada from $285.00 to $350.00 in a report published on Wednesday, The Fly reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the software giant’s stock.

MSFT has been the topic of several other reports. DA Davidson lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Wednesday. Citigroup boosted their price target on Microsoft from $332.00 to $340.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Microsoft from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Microsoft from an outperform rating to a neutral rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $310.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and thirty-three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $322.88.

Microsoft Stock Up 7.2 %

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 stock has a market capitalization of $2.20 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.82, a price-to-earnings-growth 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. Microsoft has a 12 month low of $213.43 and a 12 month high of $299.57.

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

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be paid a $0.68 dividend. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.92%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 30.22%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 in the company, valued at $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total value of $272,320.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now 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 sold 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Monumental Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 71.4% in the 3rd quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 132 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the period. Retirement Financial Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp acquired a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth approximately $54,000. 69.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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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