Wells Fargo & Company Increases Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target to $500.00

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price objective increased by Wells Fargo & Company from $480.00 to $500.00 in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the software giant’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts also recently weighed in on MSFT. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a buy rating and set a $455.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $485.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Macquarie raised their price target 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. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $452.61.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $406.32 on Friday. Microsoft has a fifty-two week low of $295.25 and a fifty-two week high of $430.82. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $414.48 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $388.51. The company has a market capitalization of $3.02 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.18, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a current ratio of 1.22.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share 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 38.87%. The business had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.86 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.45 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Microsoft will post 11.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $236,414,839.62. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,770,926.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth about $45,000. Richardson Capital Management LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 1,290.0% in the 1st quarter. Richardson Capital Management LLC now owns 139 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $59,000 after purchasing an additional 129 shares during the period. Neo Ivy Capital Management purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth about $58,000. PayPay Securities Corp raised its position in Microsoft by 23.7% in the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 188 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $71,000 after purchasing an additional 36 shares during the period. Finally, Horizon Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the 1st quarter worth about $80,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently 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.