Wedbush Reaffirms Outperform Rating for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "outperform" rating reaffirmed by research analysts at Wedbush in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $550.00 price target on the software giant's stock. Wedbush's price objective points to a potential upside of 40.57% from the company's current price.

MSFT has been the subject of several other reports. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $509.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Microsoft from $540.00 to $530.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson upgraded Microsoft from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price target for the stock from $425.00 to $450.00 in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Microsoft from $515.00 to $475.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 7th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $510.59.

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Microsoft Trading Up 1.1 %

NASDAQ MSFT traded up $4.42 on Thursday, reaching $391.26. The company had a trading volume of 39,560,145 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,335,489. The stock's 50 day moving average is $408.82 and its 200-day moving average is $419.74. The stock has a market cap of $2.91 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.50, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. Microsoft has a 52 week low of $376.91 and a 52 week high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 EPS for the quarter, beating 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. Equities analysts predict that Microsoft will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Prostatis Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Prostatis Group LLC now owns 6,007 shares of the software giant's stock worth $2,532,000 after purchasing an additional 112 shares during the period. Nestegg Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth approximately $419,000. Fairtree Asset Management Pty Ltd acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth approximately $4,452,000. M1 Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,830,000. Finally, DSG Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,840,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.