Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) PT Raised to $315.00 at Mizuho

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) had its price target raised by investment analysts at Mizuho from $300.00 to $315.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday, The Fly reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the software giant’s stock. Mizuho’s price target points to a potential upside of 12.73% from the company’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $296.00 to $280.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 10th. Fundamental Research dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $269.73 to $259.47 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 2nd. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 25th. BMO Capital Markets lowered shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $267.00 to $265.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 25th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $300.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $286.05.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $279.43 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 1.93 and a quick ratio of 1.89. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $252.31 and a two-hundred day moving average of $245.43. The stock has a market cap of $2.08 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.05, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 0.92. Microsoft has a 1-year low of $213.43 and a 1-year high of $315.95.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.05. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.05% and a return on equity of 39.87%. The firm had revenue of $52.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $53.17 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.48 earnings per share. Microsoft’s revenue was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Microsoft will post 9.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total value of $1,186,410.96. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total value of $1,186,410.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total transaction of $272,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,687,699.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 6,767 shares of company stock valued at $1,728,111 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Claro Advisors LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 26.9% during the fourth quarter. Claro Advisors LLC now owns 41,133 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,864,000 after acquiring an additional 8,722 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. increased its position in Microsoft by 7.7% during the fourth quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 65,545 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $15,719,000 after acquiring an additional 4,694 shares during the period. Flagstone Financial Management bought a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth about $933,000. Financial Alternatives Inc bought a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at about $262,000. Finally, Capital Asset Advisory Services LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 6.0% in the 4th quarter. Capital Asset Advisory Services LLC now owns 41,745 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $10,154,000 after buying an additional 2,367 shares during the period. 69.15% of the stock is 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.