Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target Raised to $520.00 at Piper Sandler

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price target raised by research analysts at Piper Sandler from $470.00 to $520.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “overweight” rating on the software giant’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price objective points to a potential upside of 22.83% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on MSFT. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $525.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Oppenheimer downgraded Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $511.62.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $423.35 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.15 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.90. Microsoft has a twelve month low of $366.50 and a twelve month high of $468.35. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $428.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $428.08.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.99 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 12.93 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to buyback $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the software giant to repurchase up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total transaction of $414,720.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 57,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,850,961.92. This represents a 1.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total value of $3,050,352.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 103,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. This represents a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 41,200 shares of company stock valued at $17,383,892 in the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% in the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $427,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. Insight Advisors LLC PA increased its stake in Microsoft by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Insight Advisors LLC PA now owns 19,653 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $8,787,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares during the period. Brendel Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at $3,484,000. Wedmont Private Capital increased its holdings in Microsoft by 6.7% during the 2nd quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 85,591 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $38,820,000 after purchasing an additional 5,344 shares during the period. Finally, Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 4.1% during the second quarter. Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. now owns 33,420 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $15,582,000 after buying an additional 1,305 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Microsoft

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.