Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) Given a $72.00 Price Target by Atlantic Securities Analysts

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has been assigned a $72.00 price target by equities research analysts at Atlantic Securities in a research report issued on Friday. The brokerage currently has a “neutral” rating on the software giant’s stock. Atlantic Securities’ target price suggests a potential downside of 2.43% from the stock’s current price.

MSFT has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $80.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft Corporation in a report on Thursday, July 13th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $73.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft Corporation in a report on Sunday, July 9th. Pacific Crest restated a “buy” rating and issued a $78.00 price objective (up previously from $70.00) on shares of Microsoft Corporation in a report on Friday, April 28th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft Corporation in a report on Friday, April 28th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada set a $77.00 price objective on Microsoft Corporation and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. The stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $75.23.

Shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ MSFT) opened at 73.79 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $569.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.56 and a beta of 1.00. Microsoft Corporation has a 1-year low of $55.61 and a 1-year high of $74.30. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $70.77 and its 200 day moving average is $66.84. Microsoft Corporation also was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Stock traders bought 91,928 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 352% compared to the typical daily volume of 20,348 put options.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 20th. The software giant reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.71 by $0.27. Microsoft Corporation had a return on equity of 37.17% and a net margin of 23.57%. The firm had revenue of $24.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $24.29 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.69 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post $3.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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In other news, Director William H. Gates III sold 2,500,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.40, for a total transaction of $173,500,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Christopher C. Capossela sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.11, for a total value of $207,330.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 216,507 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,962,798.77. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 12,060,786 shares of company stock valued at $831,893,332 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 2.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp boosted its position in Microsoft Corporation by 0.8% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 318,681,830 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $20,988,383,000 after buying an additional 2,552,473 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its position in Microsoft Corporation by 11.0% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 177,344,854 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $11,020,210,000 after buying an additional 17,606,133 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Microsoft Corporation during the fourth quarter valued at $4,334,099,000. Janus Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Microsoft Corporation by 9.4% in the fourth quarter. Janus Capital Management LLC now owns 49,271,731 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,061,887,000 after buying an additional 4,250,705 shares during the period. Finally, Dodge & Cox acquired a new position in Microsoft Corporation during the fourth quarter valued at $2,658,504,000. Institutional investors own 72.74% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Corporation Company Profile

Microsoft Corporation is a technology company. The Company develops, licenses, and supports a range of software products, services and devices. The Company’s segments include Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud and More Personal Computing. The Company’s products include operating systems; cross-device productivity applications; server applications; business solution applications; desktop and server management tools; software development tools; video games, and training and certification of computer system integrators and developers.