Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target Raised to $480.00 at Wells Fargo & Company

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price objective upped by Wells Fargo & Company from $460.00 to $480.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the software giant’s stock.

Several other analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Raymond James raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Macquarie raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $430.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. DA Davidson reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, March 15th. UBS Group reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $480.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $455.00 to $465.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $432.13.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $399.12 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.97 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.09, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.89. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $414.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is $384.83. Microsoft has a 1 year low of $275.37 and a 1 year high of $430.82.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.76 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $62.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $61.14 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.27% and a return on equity of 38.40%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.32 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 11.61 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders 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 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 27.12%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total transaction of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,770,926.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total transaction of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,770,926.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed 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 transaction of $18,530,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 574,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $236,414,839.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock valued at $30,690,456. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Monumental Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Microsoft during the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Bellevue Group AG acquired a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Neo Ivy Capital Management acquired a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $58,000. Finally, Richardson Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 1,290.0% during the first quarter. Richardson Capital Management LLC now owns 139 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 129 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.