Piper Sandler Reaffirms “Overweight” Rating for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Piper Sandler reissued their overweight rating on shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $465.00 price target on the software giant’s stock, up from their prior price target of $455.00.

Several other research analysts have also commented on MSFT. Barclays lifted their target price on Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $455.00 to $465.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a buy 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. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $452.61.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT 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 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm has a market cap of $3.02 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $414.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $388.51.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 37.54%. The business had revenue of $61.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.86 billion. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.45 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 11.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.97%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total value of $18,530,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 574,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $236,414,839.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock valued at $30,690,456. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth $45,000. Neo Ivy Capital Management bought a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at about $58,000. Richardson Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1,290.0% in the first quarter. Richardson Capital Management LLC now owns 139 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $59,000 after buying an additional 129 shares during the last quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 89.0% during the 3rd quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 223 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $70,000 after acquiring an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 23.7% during the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 188 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $71,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares during the last quarter. 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.