Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Up 0.4% After Analyst Upgrade

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares shot up 0.4% on Thursday after Tigress Financial raised their price target on the stock from $550.00 to $595.00. Tigress Financial currently has a buy rating on the stock. Microsoft traded as high as $391.79 and last traded at $389.43. 3,340,312 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 83% from the average session volume of 19,204,838 shares. The stock had previously closed at $387.82.

MSFT has been the topic of several other research reports. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $540.00 to $530.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Loop Capital boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $509.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $520.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $510.59.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Net Worth Advisory Group purchased a new position in Microsoft in the 3rd quarter valued at $2,645,000. Oak Ridge Investments LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 263,534 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $113,399,000 after purchasing an additional 18,544 shares in the last quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 76,296 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $32,830,000 after acquiring an additional 1,489 shares during the period. Campbell Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 3rd quarter worth $3,314,000. Finally, Evernest Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 389.2% during the 3rd quarter. Evernest Financial Advisors LLC now owns 53,770 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $23,137,000 after acquiring an additional 42,778 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $2.91 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $408.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $419.65. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 company posted $2.93 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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 issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.73%.

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.