Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Rating Reiterated by Morgan Stanley

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating restated by investment analysts at Morgan Stanley in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $506.00 price objective on the software giant’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 16.35% from the stock’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $485.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $494.72.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT traded up $3.54 on Tuesday, hitting $434.88. The company had a trading volume of 12,128,149 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,509,213. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $422.80 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $423.60. Microsoft has a 1 year low of $309.45 and a 1 year high of $468.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.23 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.60, a P/E/G ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.90.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $2.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.90 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $64.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.38 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.96% and a return on equity of 35.95%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.69 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 13.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 17,378 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.85, for a total value of $7,157,129.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 150,161 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $61,843,807.85. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $402.59, for a total transaction of $16,103,600.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 544,847 shares in the company, valued at approximately $219,349,953.73. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 17,378 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.85, for a total value of $7,157,129.30. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 150,161 shares in the company, valued at approximately $61,843,807.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 190,629 shares of company stock worth $77,916,485. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,920,047,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 664,908,939 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $250,032,357,000 after buying an additional 15,701,937 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the 1st quarter worth about $5,587,119,000. TCI Fund Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth about $4,000,376,000. Finally, Wulff Hansen & CO. increased its position in Microsoft by 47,196.6% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,834,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,160,850,000 after purchasing an additional 4,824,436 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.