Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.13 EPS

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.13, Briefing.com reports. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.27% and a return on equity of 38.40%. The company had revenue of $61.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.86 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.45 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Microsoft updated its Q4 2024 guidance to EPS.

Microsoft Price Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT traded up $10.34 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $409.38. The stock had a trading volume of 20,308,636 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,997,238. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $414.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $387.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.04 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.89. Microsoft has a 12 month low of $295.25 and a 12 month high of $430.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 1.20.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.12%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total transaction of $18,530,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly 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 is available through this link. In other news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,770,926.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly 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 valued at $30,690,456. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on MSFT. StockNews.com downgraded Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Microsoft from $450.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Barclays increased their price target on Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Microsoft from $460.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $442.57.

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.