Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report)'s share price was up 1.8% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $431.34 and last traded at $431.26. Approximately 4,115,422 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 80% from the average daily volume of 20,481,217 shares. The stock had previously closed at $423.46.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
Several brokerages have commented on MSFT. Piper Sandler restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $470.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their target price on Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and set a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Truist Financial reissued a "buy" rating and set a $600.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $550.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $503.03.
Check Out Our Latest Analysis on MSFT
Microsoft Stock Performance
The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.20 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.91. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $420.84 and its 200 day moving average price is $426.55.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.99 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Microsoft Increases Dividend
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.77%. This is a positive change from Microsoft's previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio is presently 27.39%.
Microsoft declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Monday, September 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the software giant to buy up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.
Insider Activity
In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $402.59, for a total value of $16,103,600.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 544,847 shares in the company, valued at $219,349,953.73. This represents a 6.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $417.00, for a total transaction of $10,425,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,294 shares of the company's stock, valued at $48,911,598. The trade was a 17.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 209,431 shares of company stock valued at $85,796,688 in the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.
Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft
Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake 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 valued at $16,567,258,000 after purchasing an additional 38,422,466 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the 1st quarter worth about $5,587,119,000. Wulff Hansen & CO. boosted its position in Microsoft by 47,196.6% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,834,658 shares of the software giant's stock worth $2,160,850,000 after acquiring an additional 4,824,436 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 165,024,812 shares of the software giant's stock worth $70,790,682,000 after acquiring an additional 3,264,648 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Microsoft by 0.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 667,987,038 shares of the software giant's stock worth $281,035,506,000 after acquiring an additional 3,078,099 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
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.
Further Reading
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