Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Given New $489.00 Price Target at Sanford C. Bernstein

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price target boosted by stock analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein from $465.00 to $489.00 in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “outperform” rating on the software giant’s stock. Sanford C. Bernstein’s target price indicates a potential upside of 20.35% from the company’s previous close.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on MSFT. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $460.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Macquarie raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $430.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $452.61.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $406.32 on Friday. Microsoft has a 12-month low of $295.25 and a 12-month high of $430.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $414.48 and its 200 day moving average is $388.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.18, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.89.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 38.87%. The company had revenue of $61.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.86 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.45 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Microsoft will post 11.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total value of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total transaction of $1,950,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,770,926.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock valued at $30,690,456 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 664,908,939 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $250,032,357,000 after purchasing an additional 15,701,937 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 215,874,152 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $68,162,263,000 after purchasing an additional 5,762,902 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth about $35,920,047,000. Barclays PLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 9.3% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 28,987,007 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,152,647,000 after buying an additional 2,456,190 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at about $9,625,201,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.