Mizuho Increases Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target to $340.00

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) had its target price raised by equities researchers at Mizuho from $325.00 to $340.00 in a report issued on Wednesday, The Fly reports. Mizuho’s target price points to a potential upside of 4.32% from the company’s current price.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on MSFT. Fundamental Research cut Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $295.00 to $337.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Microsoft from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Atlantic Securities upped their price target on Microsoft from $290.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and thirty-two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $323.69.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT opened at $325.92 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.42 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.93. Microsoft has a twelve month low of $213.43 and a twelve month high of $326.90. The company has a quick ratio of 1.88, a current ratio of 1.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $295.26 and a 200 day moving average of $263.88.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.22 by $0.23. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.98% and a net margin of 33.25%. The business had revenue of $52.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $51.01 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.22 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 9.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $306.09, for a total transaction of $9,182,700.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 117,456 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,952,107.04. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 30,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $306.09, for a total transaction of $9,182,700.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,456 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,952,107.04. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $310.05, for a total value of $1,550,250.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 110,206 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,169,370.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 54,848 shares of company stock valued at $16,635,227 over the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Optas LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Optas LLC now owns 25,001 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,996,000 after purchasing an additional 651 shares during the last quarter. West Branch Capital LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. West Branch Capital LLC now owns 44,418 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $10,652,000 after buying an additional 227 shares during the last quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd increased its position in Microsoft by 199.7% during the 3rd quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd now owns 107,705 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $25,356,000 after buying an additional 71,769 shares in the last quarter. Seascape Capital Management raised its stake in Microsoft by 41.9% in the third quarter. Seascape Capital Management now owns 2,908 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $677,000 after buying an additional 858 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth about $13,999,000. 69.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Microsoft

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Microsoft Corp. engages in the development and support of software, services, devices, and solutions. It operates through the following business segments: Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. The Productivity and Business Processes segment consists of Office Commercial (Office 365 subscriptions, the Office 365 portion of Microsoft 365 Commercial subscriptions, and Office licensed on-premises), Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, and Skype for Business, Office Consumer, including Microsoft 365 Consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other Office services, LinkedIn, including Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions, Premium Subscriptions, Sales Solutions, and Learning Solutions, Dynamics business solutions, including Dynamics 365, comprising a set of intelligent, cloud-based applications across ERP, CRM, Customer Insights, Power Apps, and Power Automate, and on-premises ERP and CRM applications.