Jefferies Financial Group Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock Price

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price target reduced by Jefferies Financial Group from $550.00 to $500.00 in a report published on Monday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the software giant’s stock.

MSFT has been the topic of a number of other reports. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. DA Davidson upgraded Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $425.00 to $450.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Loop Capital boosted their target price on Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $520.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $508.86.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $375.39 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.79 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92. Microsoft has a 12-month low of $367.24 and a 12-month high of $468.35. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $404.45 and its 200-day moving average price is $418.77.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 business posted $2.93 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.88%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.73%.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Net Worth Advisory Group purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the third quarter valued at about $2,645,000. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC now owns 5,967 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,515,000 after acquiring an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 7.6% during the third quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 263,534 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $113,399,000 after acquiring an additional 18,544 shares during the last quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. boosted its stake in Microsoft by 2.0% in the third quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 76,296 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $32,830,000 after acquiring an additional 1,489 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Campbell Wealth Management purchased a new position in Microsoft in the third quarter worth $3,314,000. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

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.