Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target Increased to $340.00 by Analysts at Mizuho

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) had its price objective boosted by Mizuho from $325.00 to $340.00 in a research note released on Wednesday morning, The Fly reports.

Several other analysts have also commented on the stock. 888 restated a maintains rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $332.00 to $340.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Microsoft from $310.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an outperform 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 given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $323.69.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $313.85 on Wednesday. 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 firm has a 50-day moving average of $294.26 and a 200-day moving average of $263.44. The firm has a market cap of $2.33 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.00, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.93. Microsoft has a 1-year low of $213.43 and a 1-year high of $322.72.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.22 by $0.23. The company had revenue of $52.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $51.01 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.25% and a return on equity of 38.98%. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.22 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft will post 9.66 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be given a dividend of $0.68 per share. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.87%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 29.47%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total transaction 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 approximately $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total transaction 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 approximately $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $306.09, for a total transaction of $9,182,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,456 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,952,107.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 54,848 shares of company stock valued at $16,635,227 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Optas LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Optas LLC now owns 25,001 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,996,000 after purchasing an additional 651 shares during the last quarter. West Branch Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. West Branch Capital LLC now owns 44,418 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $10,652,000 after purchasing an additional 227 shares during the last quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 199.7% during the 3rd quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd now owns 107,705 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $25,356,000 after purchasing an additional 71,769 shares during the last quarter. Seascape Capital Management boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 41.9% during the 3rd quarter. Seascape Capital Management now owns 2,908 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $677,000 after purchasing an additional 858 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $13,999,000. Institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

About Microsoft

(Get Rating)

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.