Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Given “Outperform” Rating at Raymond James

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating restated by Raymond James in a note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $480.00 price target on the software giant’s stock, up from their prior price target of $450.00. Raymond James’ price objective would indicate a potential upside of 17.25% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Microsoft from $465.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $465.00 target price (up previously from $455.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $480.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $442.57.

Microsoft Stock Up 2.6 %

NASDAQ MSFT traded up $10.34 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $409.38. 20,308,636 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 21,997,238. The company has a quick ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The firm has a market cap of $3.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.96, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a 50 day moving average of $414.44 and a two-hundred day moving average of $387.17. Microsoft has a 52-week low of $295.25 and a 52-week high of $430.82.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

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. In other news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly 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 the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,538,265.44. 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 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth about $45,000. Neo Ivy Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $58,000. Richardson Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 1,290.0% during the first quarter. Richardson Capital Management LLC now owns 139 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $59,000 after acquiring an additional 129 shares during the last quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 89.0% in 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 during the period. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp raised its holdings in Microsoft by 23.7% in 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.