Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target Raised to $485.00 at Evercore ISI

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its target price hoisted by Evercore ISI from $475.00 to $485.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “outperform” rating on the software giant’s stock. Evercore ISI’s target price indicates a potential upside of 19.36% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $480.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $455.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. KeyCorp assumed coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. They set an “overweight” rating and a $490.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $452.61.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $406.32 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 1.20. The company 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. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $414.48 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $388.12. Microsoft has a one year low of $295.25 and a one year high of $430.82.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 38.87%. The business had revenue of $61.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.86 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.45 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 11.71 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total value of $1,950,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at $22,770,926.10. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total transaction of $18,530,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 574,129 shares in the company, valued at $236,414,839.62. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total transaction of $1,950,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,770,926.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456 over the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 0.5% during the third quarter. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC now owns 14,103 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,453,000 after buying an additional 68 shares during the period. Caliber Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 3.7% in the third quarter. Caliber Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,888 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,806,000 after purchasing an additional 316 shares during the period. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.3% in the third quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 65,525 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $20,689,000 after purchasing an additional 844 shares during the period. McGuire Investment Group LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 3.8% in the third quarter. McGuire Investment Group LLC now owns 52,388 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $16,541,000 after purchasing an additional 1,922 shares during the period. Finally, Kentucky Retirement Systems acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the third quarter valued at about $188,066,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

About Microsoft

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.