FY2024 Earnings Estimate for Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Issued By Wedbush

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) – Equities researchers at Wedbush increased their FY2024 EPS estimates for Microsoft in a note issued to investors on Friday, April 26th. Wedbush analyst D. Ives now expects that the software giant will post earnings of $11.74 per share for the year, up from their prior forecast of $11.59. Wedbush has a “Outperform” rating and a $500.00 price objective on the stock. The consensus estimate for Microsoft’s current full-year earnings is $11.71 per share. Wedbush also issued estimates for Microsoft’s Q4 2024 earnings at $2.89 EPS, Q1 2025 earnings at $3.17 EPS, Q2 2025 earnings at $3.31 EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at $3.32 EPS and FY2025 earnings at $13.29 EPS.

Other analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. KeyCorp assumed coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $490.00 price target for the company. DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $452.61.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.8 %

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $406.32 on Monday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $414.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $388.51. Microsoft has a 52 week low of $295.25 and a 52 week high of $430.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The stock has a market cap of $3.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.18, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.89.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analysts’ expectations of $60.86 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.45 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Friedenthal Financial bought a new position in Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth $45,000. Neo Ivy Capital Management bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at $58,000. Richardson Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1,290.0% during the first quarter. Richardson Capital Management LLC now owns 139 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $59,000 after acquiring an additional 129 shares during the period. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 89.0% during the third quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 223 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $70,000 after acquiring an additional 105 shares during the period. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 23.7% during the fourth quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 188 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $71,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total value 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $22,770,926.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total value of $8,868,941.80. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock valued at $30,690,456 over the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a $0.75 dividend. 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%.

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.