Microsoft’s (MSFT) “Neutral” Rating Reaffirmed at Guggenheim

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reiterated by stock analysts at Guggenheim in a note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports.

MSFT has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on Microsoft from $520.00 to $435.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $475.00 target price (down previously from $500.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wedbush cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $475.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $493.13.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT opened at $387.30 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.88 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.18, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. Microsoft has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $468.35. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $385.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $411.53.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 33.36%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.93 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth about $44,343,058,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 40,290.4% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 46,695,303 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $17,528,950,000 after acquiring an additional 46,579,693 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 34,643.3% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,837,278 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $7,096,913,000 after purchasing an additional 16,788,816 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Microsoft by 16.1% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $35,316,535,000 after purchasing an additional 11,600,470 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 684,071,705 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $288,336,224,000 after purchasing an additional 10,431,988 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

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.