Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) PT Raised to $489.00

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price target lifted by stock analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein from $465.00 to $489.00 in a research report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the software giant’s stock. Sanford C. Bernstein’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 22.54% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research firms have also recently issued reports on MSFT. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, March 25th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $480.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Microsoft from $455.00 to $465.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Microsoft from $465.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $441.80.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT opened at $399.04 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. Microsoft has a 12 month low of $292.73 and a 12 month high of $430.82. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $414.44 and a 200 day simple moving average of $387.17. The stock has a market cap of $2.97 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.89.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.27% and a return on equity of 38.40%. The business had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.86 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.45 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Microsoft will post 11.61 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 in the company, valued at $64,538,265.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 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 shares were 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 owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 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 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Johnson Bixby & Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% in the first quarter. Johnson Bixby & Associates LLC now owns 6,481 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,727,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. Morris Financial Concepts Inc. boosted its position in Microsoft by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Morris Financial Concepts Inc. now owns 2,663 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,001,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. Innova Wealth Partners boosted its position in Microsoft by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Innova Wealth Partners now owns 4,239 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,594,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. Arkansas Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in Microsoft by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Arkansas Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,719 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $646,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Partnership Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 0.4% during the first quarter. Partnership Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,202 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,609,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

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.