Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Down 0.3% on Analyst Downgrade

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s share price dropped 0.3% on Thursday after Citigroup lowered their price target on the stock from $480.00 to $475.00. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the stock. Microsoft traded as low as $407.09 and last traded at $410.57. Approximately 5,313,024 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 75% from the average daily volume of 21,650,094 shares. The stock had previously closed at $411.84.

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Barclays boosted their price target on Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. StockNews.com cut Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $455.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $432.13.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total value of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,770,926.10. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total value of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,770,926.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total value of $18,530,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 574,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $236,414,839.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. DGS Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 19.9% during the 1st quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 14,342 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,422,000 after purchasing an additional 2,383 shares during the last quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 20.8% during the 1st quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 1,138,469 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $351,001,000 after purchasing an additional 196,338 shares during the last quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC now owns 12,712 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,919,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares during the last quarter. Powell Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 16.2% during the 1st quarter. Powell Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,578 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $795,000 after purchasing an additional 359 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 8.2% during the 1st quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC now owns 6,782 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,921,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a current ratio of 1.22. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $414.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is $384.83. The firm has a market cap of $2.97 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.09, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.89.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.76 by $0.17. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.27% and a return on equity of 38.40%. The firm had revenue of $62.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $61.14 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.32 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 11.61 earnings per share for the current 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 issued a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 27.12%.

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.