Piper Sandler Reaffirms “Overweight” Rating for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Piper Sandler reaffirmed their overweight rating on shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) in a report issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $520.00 price objective on the software giant’s stock.

MSFT has been the topic of several other research reports. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Microsoft from $500.00 to $495.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Oppenheimer lowered Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $512.66.

Microsoft Trading Down 2.1 %

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $434.56 on Monday. Microsoft has a 52-week low of $385.58 and a 52-week high of $468.35. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $431.05 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $425.30. The company has a market capitalization of $3.23 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.85, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.30.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.99 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 12.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 27.39%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total value of $1,118,525.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 49,352 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,080,578.32. This represents a 4.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total transaction of $3,050,352.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. This trade represents a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. First National Bank Sioux Falls increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. First National Bank Sioux Falls now owns 6,340 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,834,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. BCK Partners Inc. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. BCK Partners Inc. now owns 1,353 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $582,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the period. Muirfield Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Muirfield Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,427 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,866,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Wealth Management increased its holdings in Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Wealth Management now owns 9,640 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,309,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators raised its position in Microsoft by 0.8% in the second quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 3,255 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,455,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.