Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Earns “Buy” Rating from Stifel Nicolaus

Stifel Nicolaus reissued their buy rating on shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) in a research note published on Monday, Benzinga reports. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a $455.00 price target on the software giant’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on MSFT. Wedbush reiterated an outperform rating and set a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Truist Financial reiterated a buy rating and set a $600.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, March 25th. UBS Group reiterated a buy rating and set a $480.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. KeyCorp began coverage on Microsoft in a report on Thursday, March 21st. They set an overweight rating and a $490.00 price target for the company. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on Microsoft from $465.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Monday, April 1st. 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 an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $434.05.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $399.04 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.97 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.08, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.89. The business has a 50-day moving average of $414.44 and a 200-day 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. Microsoft has a fifty-two week low of $292.73 and a fifty-two week high of $430.82.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.76 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $62.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $61.14 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.40% and a net margin of 36.27%. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.32 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Microsoft will post 11.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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 dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 27.12%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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. In related news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,770,926.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over 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 insiders.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Microsoft by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. now owns 24,887 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,359,000 after acquiring an additional 185 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position in Microsoft by 4.1% during the third quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 82,267 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $25,976,000 after acquiring an additional 3,209 shares during the last quarter. Bailard Inc. boosted its position in Microsoft by 1.2% during the third quarter. Bailard Inc. now owns 470,301 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $148,497,000 after acquiring an additional 5,366 shares during the last quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 10.4% during the fourth quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC now owns 69,053 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $25,967,000 after acquiring an additional 6,484 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Independence Bank of Kentucky boosted its position in Microsoft by 7.7% during the third quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 17,471 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,516,000 after acquiring an additional 1,245 shares during the last quarter. 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.