Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Down 0.5% After Analyst Downgrade

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) was down 0.5% during mid-day trading on Friday after Citigroup lowered their price target on the stock from $480.00 to $475.00. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the stock. Microsoft traded as low as $399.39 and last traded at $402.29. Approximately 10,078,228 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 54% from the average daily volume of 21,683,816 shares. The stock had previously closed at $404.27.

Several other research analysts have also issued reports on MSFT. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, March 25th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $460.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $455.00 to $465.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $432.13.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total value of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,770,926.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total value of $18,530,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 574,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $236,414,839.62. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total value of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,770,926.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,070,258 shares of company stock valued at $30,690,456 over the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Microsoft by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 664,908,939 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $250,032,357,000 after acquiring an additional 15,701,937 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in Microsoft by 0.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 295,509,547 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $68,824,173,000 after acquiring an additional 1,951,554 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 2.7% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 215,874,152 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $68,162,263,000 after acquiring an additional 5,762,902 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in 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 worth $50,302,677,000 after acquiring an additional 556,020 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in 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 worth $36,017,948,000 after acquiring an additional 150,053,637 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The stock has a market cap of $2.97 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.09, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $414.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $384.83.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.76 by $0.17. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.40% and a net margin of 36.27%. The company had revenue of $62.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $61.14 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.32 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 11.61 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.12%.

About Microsoft

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.