Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Issues Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.13 EPS

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.13, Briefing.com reports. The firm had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.86 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.87% and a net margin of 36.43%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.45 earnings per share. Microsoft updated its Q4 2024 guidance to EPS.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT opened at $406.32 on Friday. Microsoft has a 52 week low of $295.25 and a 52 week high of $430.82. The firm has a market cap of $3.02 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.18, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $414.48 and a 200-day moving average of $387.70.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.74%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 25.97%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total transaction of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,770,926.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total transaction of $1,950,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,770,926.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total value of $8,868,941.80. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456 in the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on MSFT shares. DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $485.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $465.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $480.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $452.61.

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.