Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Trading Up 2.4% on Analyst Upgrade

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s share price traded up 2.4% on Friday after DA Davidson raised their price target on the stock from $450.00 to $500.00. DA Davidson currently has a buy rating on the stock. Microsoft traded as high as $439.44 and last traded at $435.80. 12,269,355 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 50% from the average session volume of 24,335,076 shares. The stock had previously closed at $425.40.

Several other research firms have also commented on MSFT. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $480.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their target price on Microsoft from $502.00 to $512.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. KeyCorp reissued a “sector weight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Microsoft from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $507.77.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC now owns 5,967 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,515,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the period. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. grew its holdings in Microsoft by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. now owns 315,594 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $133,023,000 after acquiring an additional 18,052 shares during the period. Centric Wealth Management grew its holdings in Microsoft by 0.7% during the third quarter. Centric Wealth Management now owns 16,156 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,789,000 after acquiring an additional 112 shares during the period. 1900 Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. 1900 Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,140 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,274,000 after acquiring an additional 294 shares in the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 2.4% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 9,250,128 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,980,299,000 after acquiring an additional 217,509 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Up 2.3 %

The firm has a market cap of $3.24 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $384.93 and a 200 day simple moving average of $411.07. 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 (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.22 by $0.24. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 33.36%. The firm had revenue of $70.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $68.54 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.94 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.73%.

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.