Wolfe Research Has Lowered Expectations for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock Price

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price target cut by equities researchers at Wolfe Research from $675.00 to $625.00 in a research note issued on Monday,MarketScreener reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the software giant’s stock. Wolfe Research’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 31.20% from the company’s previous close.

MSFT has been the subject of several other reports. Robert W. Baird started coverage on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, November 14th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $600.00 target price for the company. Redburn Partners set a $560.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Melius Research lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $595.00 to $625.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Evercore ISI set a $640.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Guggenheim set a $675.00 price target on Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, November 19th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $631.03.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.3%

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $476.39 on Monday. Microsoft has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $555.45. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $502.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $502.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.54 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.39.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.65 by $0.48. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.45% and a net margin of 35.71%.The business had revenue of $77.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $75.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.30 earnings per share. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total value of $19,967,640.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 461,597 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $239,402,668.08. This represents a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $478.72, for a total transaction of $1,364,352.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 55,782 shares in the company, valued at $26,703,959.04. This represents a 4.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872 over the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 51.3% during the 2nd quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Bulwark Capital Corp acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. Westend Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 386.7% in the 2nd quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. Bayforest Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the third quarter worth $38,000. Finally, Sellwood Investment Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 3rd quarter worth $49,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.