Raymond James Reaffirms “Outperform” Rating for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Raymond James reissued their outperform rating on shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $480.00 price target on the software giant’s stock, up from their prior price target of $450.00.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the company. Wedbush reissued an outperform rating and set a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an overweight rating and issued a $465.00 target price (up from $455.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday. Truist Financial reaffirmed a buy rating and issued a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Citigroup cut their price target on Microsoft from $480.00 to $475.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $452.61.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $406.32 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The stock has a market cap of $3.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.89. Microsoft has a 52 week low of $295.25 and a 52 week high of $430.82. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $414.48 and a 200-day moving average of $388.51.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $61.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.86 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 37.54% and a net margin of 36.43%. The business’s revenue was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.45 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Microsoft will post 11.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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 given a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.97%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total transaction of $18,530,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 574,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $236,414,839.62. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was 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 directly owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at $45,000. Neo Ivy Capital Management acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at $58,000. Richardson Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1,290.0% in the 1st quarter. Richardson Capital Management LLC now owns 139 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 129 shares during the period. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 89.0% in the 3rd quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 223 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $70,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares during the period. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 23.7% in the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 188 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $71,000 after purchasing an additional 36 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.