Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) dropped 0% on Thursday after Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on the stock from $530.00 to $472.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Microsoft traded as low as $368.63 and last traded at $371.59. Approximately 5,644,752 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 73% from the average daily volume of 21,197,917 shares. The stock had previously closed at $371.61.
Other research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $490.00 to $470.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $475.00 target price (down from $500.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, April 7th. Piper Sandler restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $520.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Scotiabank assumed coverage on Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. They issued a "sector outperform" rating and a $470.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Wedbush dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $475.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $499.97.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on Microsoft
Institutional Trading of Microsoft
A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at $44,343,058,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 40,290.4% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 46,695,303 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $17,528,950,000 after purchasing an additional 46,579,693 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 worth $7,096,913,000 after buying an additional 16,788,816 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 16.1% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant's stock worth $35,316,535,000 after buying an additional 11,600,470 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 684,071,705 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $288,336,224,000 after buying an additional 10,431,988 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Microsoft Trading Down 1.0 %
The company has a 50-day moving average of $388.25 and a 200 day moving average of $412.78. 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 has a market cap of $2.73 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share (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 period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.93 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.
Microsoft Dividend Announcement
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.90%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio is currently 26.73%.
About Microsoft
(
Get Free Report)
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.
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