Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) to Post Q4 2024 Earnings of $2.93 Per Share, DA Davidson Forecasts

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) – Stock analysts at DA Davidson issued their Q4 2024 EPS estimates for shares of Microsoft in a report released on Friday, April 26th. DA Davidson analyst G. Luria anticipates that the software giant will post earnings of $2.93 per share for the quarter. DA Davidson currently has a “Buy” rating and a $500.00 target price on the stock. The consensus estimate for Microsoft’s current full-year earnings is $11.71 per share.

Other analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $455.00 to $465.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, KeyCorp began coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $490.00 price target on the stock. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $452.61.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $406.32 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a current ratio of 1.22. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $414.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $388.51. Microsoft has a twelve month low of $295.25 and a twelve month high of $430.82. The firm has a market cap of $3.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.89.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 38.87%. The business had revenue of $61.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.86 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.45 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.97%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at $64,538,265.44. The sale was disclosed in a 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 that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total transaction of $1,950,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now 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. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% in the third quarter. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC now owns 14,103 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,453,000 after buying an additional 68 shares during the period. Caliber Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 3.7% in the third quarter. Caliber Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,888 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,806,000 after buying an additional 316 shares during the period. Smith & Howard Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.8% in the third quarter. Smith & Howard Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,888 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,228,000 after buying an additional 107 shares during the period. Stordahl Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.3% in the third quarter. Stordahl Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,742 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,182,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. Finally, Insight Wealth Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 3.8% in the third quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 14,369 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,537,000 after buying an additional 524 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.