Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) has been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty-nine ratings firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $512.93.

MSFT has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Cantor Fitzgerald initiated coverage on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $509.00 target price for the company. DA Davidson cut shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday, September 23rd. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $525.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.0 %

MSFT stock opened at $429.03 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.30. Microsoft has a fifty-two week low of $385.58 and a fifty-two week high of $468.35. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $429.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $426.14. The company has a market cap of $3.19 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.90.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.99 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Microsoft will post 12.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.77%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 27.39%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total transaction of $414,720.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 57,511 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,850,961.92. This represents a 1.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total transaction of $3,050,352.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. This trade represents a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 41,200 shares of company stock valued at $17,383,892 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 23,302 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $10,027,000 after buying an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. FCG Investment Co grew its position in Microsoft by 10.1% in the 4th quarter. FCG Investment Co now owns 30,818 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $12,990,000 after acquiring an additional 2,817 shares in the last quarter. Lifestyle Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Microsoft by 6.9% during the fourth quarter. Lifestyle Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,344 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $566,000 after purchasing an additional 87 shares during the period. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. now owns 3,956 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,667,000 after purchasing an additional 247 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Spinnaker Investment Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 47.8% in the fourth quarter. Spinnaker Investment Group LLC now owns 72,185 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $30,426,000 after purchasing an additional 23,352 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Company Profile

Microsoft Corporation develops and supports software, services, devices and solutions worldwide. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers office, exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft viva, and Microsoft 365 copilot; and office consumer services, such as Microsoft 365 consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other office services.