Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Trading Up 1.6% – Here’s What Happened

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares rose 1.6% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $384.84 and last traded at $384.72. Approximately 4,621,811 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 80% from the average daily volume of 23,017,955 shares. The stock had previously closed at $378.77.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the topic of several research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $509.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. UBS Group reduced their price target on Microsoft from $525.00 to $510.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Guggenheim reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price target on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $510.43.

Microsoft Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.35. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $412.43 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $420.59. The company has a market cap of $2.89 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 quarter last year, the business posted $2.93 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.85%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.73%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. WFA Asset Management Corp boosted its stake in Microsoft by 27.0% during the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $427,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. boosted its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. IMS Capital Management boosted its stake in Microsoft by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. IMS Capital Management now owns 22,222 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,440,000 after purchasing an additional 241 shares during the last quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 16.9% during the 2nd quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC now owns 26,048 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $11,643,000 after purchasing an additional 3,773 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ted Buchan & Co purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at $2,566,000. Hedge funds and other 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.