The Goldman Sachs Group Raises Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target to $515.00

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price objective raised by The Goldman Sachs Group from $450.00 to $515.00 in a research note released on Friday, Benzinga reports. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a buy rating on the software giant’s stock.

Other analysts have also issued reports about the company. Stifel Nicolaus restated a buy rating and issued a $455.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. UBS Group restated a buy rating and issued a $480.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on Microsoft from $465.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Microsoft from $465.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Microsoft from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $452.61.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.0 %

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $402.25 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $414.45 and its 200-day moving average is $389.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.99 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.83, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.89. Microsoft has a one year low of $303.40 and a one year high of $430.82.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 37.54%. The business had revenue of $61.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.86 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.45 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Microsoft will post 11.71 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared 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 of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 25.97%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $406.12, for a total transaction of $1,341,414.36. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 570,826 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $231,823,855.12. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 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 transaction of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at $22,770,926.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly 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. Insiders have sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock valued at $30,690,456 over the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 664,908,939 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $250,032,357,000 after acquiring an additional 15,701,937 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 215,874,152 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $68,162,263,000 after purchasing an additional 5,762,902 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth about $35,920,047,000. Barclays PLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 9.3% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 28,987,007 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,152,647,000 after purchasing an additional 2,456,190 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $9,625,201,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

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.