Microsoft’s (MSFT) “Outperform” Rating Reaffirmed at Wedbush

Wedbush reissued their outperform rating on shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. Wedbush currently has a $500.00 target price on the software giant’s stock. Wedbush also issued estimates for Microsoft’s Q4 2024 earnings at $2.89 EPS, FY2024 earnings at $11.74 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 equities research analysts have also issued reports about the company. Raymond James raised their price objective on Microsoft from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on Microsoft from $465.00 to $489.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Friday. Truist Financial reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $600.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, March 25th. Piper Sandler reissued an overweight rating and issued a $465.00 target price (up from $455.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $452.61.

Microsoft Price Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $402.25 on Friday. Microsoft has a 12 month low of $303.40 and a 12 month high of $430.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.99 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.89. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $414.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $389.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.23.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $61.86 billion during 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 company’s revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.45 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 11.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.97%.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly 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 can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 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 valued at $30,690,456 over the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Investment Advisory Group LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 2.3% during the first quarter. Investment Advisory Group LLC now owns 11,272 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,742,000 after acquiring an additional 253 shares in the last quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 4.9% during the 1st quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. now owns 15,807 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,648,000 after purchasing an additional 745 shares in the last quarter. OFI Invest Asset Management lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 9.9% during the 1st quarter. OFI Invest Asset Management now owns 727,316 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $283,855,000 after purchasing an additional 65,675 shares during the last quarter. Privium Fund Management UK Ltd boosted its position in Microsoft by 43.3% in the first quarter. Privium Fund Management UK Ltd now owns 10,567 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,476,000 after buying an additional 3,194 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. grew its stake in Microsoft by 1.0% during the first quarter. Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. now owns 404,076 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $170,003,000 after buying an additional 4,027 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.