Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target Raised to $348.00 at Piper Sandler

Posted by Defense World Staff on Apr 27th, 2023

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) had its target price increased by Piper Sandler from $290.00 to $348.00 in a research report report published on Wednesday morning, The Fly reports.

MSFT has been the topic of several other reports. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Microsoft from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and raised their target price for the stock from $325.00 to $347.00 in a report on Wednesday. Wolfe Research boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $330.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Microsoft from $285.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on Microsoft from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, April 19th. Finally, Wedbush upped their price objective on Microsoft from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday. One equities research 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $322.88.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $295.37 on Wednesday. The firm 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. 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 has a fifty day moving average of $271.70 and a 200-day moving average of $252.46.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.22 by $0.23. Microsoft had a return on equity of 39.87% and a net margin of 33.05%. The company had revenue of $52.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $51.01 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.22 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research 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. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be given a dividend of $0.68 per share. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 30.22%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the chief marketing officer now 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 is available through this hyperlink. Also, 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 6,767 shares of company stock valued at $1,728,111. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Monumental Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 1st quarter valued at $28,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. increased its stake 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 last quarter. Retirement Financial Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth $40,000. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth $54,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Company Profile

(Get Rating)

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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