Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target Cut to $265.00

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) had its target price dropped by equities researchers at JPMorgan Chase & Co. to $265.00 in a research note issued on Tuesday, The Fly reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s target price suggests a potential upside of 9.49% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also issued reports on the company. Cowen lowered their price target on Microsoft from $310.00 to $285.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 26th. Macquarie started coverage on Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, November 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $234.00 target price on the stock. Credit Suisse Group set a $365.00 price target on Microsoft in a report on Friday, December 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $315.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, January 17th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $287.03.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.2 %

MSFT opened at $242.04 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.80 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.94. Microsoft has a 52 week low of $213.43 and a 52 week high of $315.95. The business’s 50 day moving average is $241.72 and its two-hundred day moving average is $249.53. The company has a quick ratio of 1.79, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.30 by $0.02. Microsoft had a net margin of 34.37% and a return on equity of 42.10%. The business had revenue of $52.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $53.17 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.48 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Microsoft will post 9.49 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 24,144 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $254.27, for a total transaction of $6,139,094.88. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 150,047 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,152,450.69. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 634,238,715 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $147,714,197,000 after buying an additional 6,129,708 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Microsoft by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 295,509,547 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $68,824,173,000 after acquiring an additional 1,951,554 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 195,859,819 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $50,302,677,000 after purchasing an additional 556,020 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.5% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 54,799,110 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $14,074,064,000 after purchasing an additional 784,656 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its stake in Microsoft by 0.4% in the third quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 49,440,386 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $11,514,665,000 after purchasing an additional 208,765 shares in the last quarter. 69.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Microsoft

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Microsoft Corporation develops, licenses, and supports software, services, devices, and solutions worldwide. The company operates in three segments: Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft Viva, and Skype for Business; Skype, Outlook.com, OneDrive, and LinkedIn; and Dynamics 365, a set of cloud-based and on-premises business solutions for organizations and enterprise divisions.