Jefferies Financial Group Lowers Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target to $500.00

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) had its target price decreased by analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from $550.00 to $500.00 in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a "buy" rating on the software giant's stock. Jefferies Financial Group's price target would indicate a potential upside of 30.82% from the company's current price.

A number of other analysts have also weighed in on MSFT. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $509.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $550.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $475.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 7th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $508.86.

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Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT traded up $6.80 on Monday, reaching $382.19. 19,648,293 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,595,340. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The company's 50-day moving average price is $404.45 and its 200 day moving average price is $418.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.84 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.77, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92. Microsoft has a fifty-two week low of $367.24 and a fifty-two week high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.93 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth about $44,343,058,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 48,526.1% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 38,501,645 shares of the software giant's stock worth $16,567,258,000 after buying an additional 38,422,466 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 34,643.3% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,837,278 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $7,096,913,000 after buying an additional 16,788,816 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant's stock worth $35,316,535,000 after acquiring an additional 11,600,470 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 684,071,705 shares of the software giant's stock worth $288,336,224,000 after acquiring an additional 10,431,988 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is 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.