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

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

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock traded up $9.43 on Friday, hitting $408.47. The company had a trading volume of 20,825,009 shares, compared to its average volume of 22,004,221. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $414.44 and a 200-day simple moving average of $387.17. 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 market cap of $3.04 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.96, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.89. Microsoft has a 52 week low of $295.25 and a 52 week high of $430.82.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider now owns 574,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $236,414,839.62. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 574,129 shares in the company, valued at $236,414,839.62. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $406.12, for a total value of $1,341,414.36. Following the sale, the insider now owns 570,826 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $231,823,855.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $465.00 target price (up from $455.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $455.00 to $465.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. StockNews.com cut shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and set a $480.00 price objective (up previously from $450.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Microsoft from $450.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $443.08.

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.