Microsoft’s (MSFT) “Outperform” Rating Reaffirmed at Wedbush

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating restated by Wedbush in a research note issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $500.00 price objective on the software giant’s stock. Wedbush’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 25.30% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on MSFT. Raymond James boosted their price target on Microsoft from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $480.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Microsoft from $460.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. StockNews.com lowered Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $441.80.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $399.04 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.97 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.22 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. Microsoft has a 52 week low of $292.73 and a 52 week high of $430.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, 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 transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at $64,538,265.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the firm’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 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 available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now directly 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 90 days, insiders have sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth about $45,000. Neo Ivy Capital Management purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth about $58,000. Richardson Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1,290.0% in the 1st 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 last quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 89.0% in the 3rd quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 223 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $70,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp lifted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 36 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Microsoft Company Profile

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.