Wedbush Increases Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target to $340.00

Posted by Defense World Staff on May 13th, 2023

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) had its price objective raised by research analysts at Wedbush from $325.00 to $340.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, The Fly reports. Wedbush’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 10.04% from the stock’s current price.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Fundamental Research downgraded shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 2nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $307.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Macquarie upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $260.00 to $325.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $332.00 to $340.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, DA Davidson boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $323.28.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $308.97 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $2.30 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.93. Microsoft has a 52-week low of $213.43 and a 52-week high of $313.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.88, a current ratio of 1.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The company’s 50 day moving average is $284.73 and its two-hundred day moving average is $258.41.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last posted 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. The firm had revenue of $52.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $51.01 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.25% and a return on equity of 38.98%. The company’s revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.22 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Microsoft will post 9.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $306.09, for a total transaction of $9,182,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,456 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,952,107.04. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Microsoft news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $306.09, for a total transaction of $9,182,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,456 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,952,107.04. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $310.05, for a total transaction of $1,550,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 110,206 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,169,370.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 45,767 shares of company stock valued at $13,735,181. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Optas LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Optas LLC now owns 25,001 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,996,000 after buying an additional 651 shares during the last quarter. West Branch Capital LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. West Branch Capital LLC now owns 44,418 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $10,652,000 after purchasing an additional 227 shares during the last quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd grew its holdings in Microsoft by 199.7% during the third quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd now owns 107,705 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $25,356,000 after purchasing an additional 71,769 shares during the last quarter. Seascape Capital Management grew its holdings in Microsoft by 41.9% during the third quarter. Seascape Capital Management now owns 2,908 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $677,000 after purchasing an additional 858 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $13,999,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.