Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target Increased to $500.00 by Analysts at Wells Fargo & Company

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price target increased by Wells Fargo & Company from $480.00 to $500.00 in a report published on Friday, Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the software giant’s stock.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $485.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday. Wedbush reaffirmed an outperform rating and issued a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a buy rating and issued a $455.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Truist Financial reiterated a buy rating and set a $600.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Finally, Macquarie lifted their price objective 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. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $452.61.

Microsoft Price Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $406.32 on Friday. 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. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.02 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.18, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.89. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $414.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $387.70.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 38.87%. The business had revenue of $61.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.86 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.45 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 11.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.97%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total value 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 hyperlink. In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at $22,770,926.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,070,258 shares of company stock valued at $30,690,456 over the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 664,908,939 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $250,032,357,000 after buying an additional 15,701,937 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 2.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 215,874,152 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $68,162,263,000 after buying an additional 5,762,902 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,920,047,000. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 9.3% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 28,987,007 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,152,647,000 after buying an additional 2,456,190 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $9,625,201,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by 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.