Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Hits New 1-Year High at $321.01

Posted by Defense World Staff on May 24th, 2023

Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $321.01 and last traded at $320.39, with a volume of 3410299 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $318.34.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on MSFT shares. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $322.00 in a report on Monday, April 24th. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $295.00 to $337.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $310.00 to $340.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and thirty-two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $323.28.

Microsoft Price Performance

The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $293.30 and its 200 day moving average price is $263.09. 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 stock has a market cap of $2.34 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.93.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last released its 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. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.25% and a return on equity of 38.98%. The firm had revenue of $52.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $51.01 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.22 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 9.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 18th will be given a $0.68 dividend. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.86%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.47%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $310.05, for a total value of $1,550,250.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 110,206 shares in the company, valued at $34,169,370.30. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $310.05, for a total transaction of $1,550,250.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 110,206 shares in the company, valued at $34,169,370.30. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the business’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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 54,848 shares of company stock worth $16,635,227. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 6,129,708 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% during the third 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. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.8% during the first quarter. FMR LLC now owns 200,523,373 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $57,810,889,000 after purchasing an additional 1,537,712 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the second 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 purchasing an additional 556,020 shares during the period. Finally, Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 112,158.6% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 150,187,424 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $36,017,948,000 after purchasing an additional 150,053,637 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

About Microsoft

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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.