Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Reaches New 12-Month High at $321.01

Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $321.01 and last traded at $320.39, with a volume of 3410299 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $318.34.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSFT has been the subject of several analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Raymond James increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Microsoft from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $325.00 to $347.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and thirty-two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $323.28.

Microsoft Stock Down 1.8 %

The company has a current ratio of 1.91, a quick ratio of 1.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.34 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.93. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $293.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $263.09.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.22 by $0.23. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.25% and a return on equity of 38.98%. The firm had revenue of $52.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $51.01 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.22 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 9.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be given a $0.68 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.86%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 29.47%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.87, for a total value of $1,584,350.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 89,328 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,305,363.36. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.87, for a total value of $1,584,350.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 89,328 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,305,363.36. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total transaction 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 54,848 shares of company stock worth $16,635,227. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Monumental Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Microsoft during the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. increased its stake in Microsoft by 71.4% during the 3rd quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 132 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the period. Retirement Financial Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp acquired a new position in Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $54,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Company Profile

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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.