Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Down 0.3% on Analyst Downgrade

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares dropped 0.3% during mid-day trading on Thursday after Citigroup lowered their price target on the stock from $480.00 to $475.00. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the stock. Microsoft traded as low as $407.09 and last traded at $410.57. Approximately 5,313,024 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 75% from the average daily volume of 21,650,094 shares. The stock had previously closed at $411.84.

MSFT has been the subject of several other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $460.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Raymond James lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. BNP Paribas upgraded Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $471.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Microsoft from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, KeyCorp initiated coverage on Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. They set an “overweight” rating and a $490.00 target price for the company. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $432.13.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total value of $8,868,941.80. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456 over the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Monumental Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the first quarter valued at $28,000. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at $45,000. Bellevue Group AG purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at $46,000. Neo Ivy Capital Management purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at $58,000. Finally, 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 valued at $59,000 after acquiring an additional 129 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Microsoft Price Performance

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 50-day moving average price of $415.48 and a 200-day moving average price of $384.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.02 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.89.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.76 by $0.17. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.40% and a net margin of 36.27%. The business had revenue of $62.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $61.14 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.32 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 11.61 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 27.12%.

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.