Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock Price Down 4.2%

Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) traded down 4.2% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $388.03 and last traded at $392.05. 13,525,317 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 38% from the average session volume of 21,666,740 shares. The stock had previously closed at $409.06.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. BNP Paribas raised shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $471.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $452.61.

Microsoft Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 1.20. The stock has a market capitalization 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 stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $414.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $387.70.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.86 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 38.87%. The company’s revenue was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.45 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 11.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.97%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $406.12, for a total value of $1,341,414.36. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 570,826 shares in the company, valued at $231,823,855.12. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total transaction of $1,950,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,770,926.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $406.12, for a total transaction of $1,341,414.36. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 570,826 shares in the company, valued at approximately $231,823,855.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at $35,920,047,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at $9,625,201,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Microsoft by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 664,908,939 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $250,032,357,000 after buying an additional 15,701,937 shares during the period. TCI Fund Management Ltd. bought a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at $4,000,376,000. Finally, FMR LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 215,874,152 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $68,162,263,000 after buying an additional 5,762,902 shares during the period. 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.