Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Trading Down 3% Following Analyst Downgrade

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares fell 3% during mid-day trading on Monday after Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on the stock from $515.00 to $475.00. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the stock. Microsoft traded as low as $379.65 and last traded at $381.42. 7,194,444 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 68% from the average session volume of 22,696,354 shares. The stock had previously closed at $393.31.

Several other research analysts have also recently commented on MSFT. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $509.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. StockNews.com cut Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $425.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $525.00 to $510.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $509.54.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp grew its stake in Microsoft by 27.0% in the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $427,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,658,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Beck Bode LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 37.3% during the second quarter. Beck Bode LLC now owns 39,951 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $17,856,000 after acquiring an additional 10,847 shares during the period. Commonwealth Financial Services LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 2.1% in the second quarter. Commonwealth Financial Services LLC now owns 19,968 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,310,000 after acquiring an additional 412 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Certified Advisory Corp boosted its stake in Microsoft by 9.2% in the second quarter. Certified Advisory Corp now owns 13,899 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,212,000 after acquiring an additional 1,175 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $416.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $421.85. The company has a market capitalization of $2.83 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 last year, the firm earned $2.93 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.