Wells Fargo & Company set a $82.50 price target on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in a report released on Friday. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the software giant’s stock.
Several other research firms also recently issued reports on MSFT. UBS AG set a $82.00 target price on Microsoft Corporation and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday. Canaccord Genuity upped their target price on Microsoft Corporation from $68.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research report on Friday. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Microsoft Corporation from $75.00 to $86.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Friday. Deutsche Bank AG reissued a buy rating and issued a $85.00 target price (up from $80.00) on shares of Microsoft Corporation in a research report on Friday. Finally, Raymond James Financial, Inc. increased their price target on Microsoft Corporation to $84.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. The stock has a consensus rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $75.83.
Shares of Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) opened at 73.79 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $568.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.23 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $70.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $66.84. Microsoft Corporation has a one year low of $55.61 and a one year high of $74.30.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 20th. The software giant reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.71 by $0.27. Microsoft Corporation had a return on equity of 36.81% 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 period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.69 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post $3.25 EPS for the current year.
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The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 17th will be issued a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 15th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.11%. Microsoft Corporation’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 57.78%.
In related news, insider Jean Philippe Courtois sold 26,165 shares of Microsoft Corporation stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.00, for a total value of $1,805,385.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 570,843 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,388,167. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director William H. Gates III sold 2,500,000 shares of Microsoft Corporation stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.40, for a total transaction of $173,500,000.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 12,060,786 shares of company stock valued at $831,893,332 in the last quarter. 2.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.
A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. 3G Capital Partners LP increased its stake in Microsoft Corporation by 7.1% in the fourth quarter. 3G Capital Partners LP now owns 1,608,543 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $99,955,000 after buying an additional 106,728 shares during the period. Wealthfront Inc. increased its stake in Microsoft Corporation by 15.8% in the fourth quarter. Wealthfront Inc. now owns 230,160 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $14,302,000 after buying an additional 31,364 shares during the period. AMF Pensionsforsakring AB increased its stake in Microsoft Corporation by 10.1% in the fourth quarter. AMF Pensionsforsakring AB now owns 6,579,698 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $408,862,000 after buying an additional 606,188 shares during the period. Dodge & Cox bought a new stake in Microsoft Corporation during the fourth quarter valued at $2,658,504,000. Finally, Tompkins Financial Corp increased its stake in Microsoft Corporation by 21.1% in the first quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp now owns 104,748 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,784,000 after buying an additional 18,225 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.74% of the company’s stock.
About Microsoft Corporation
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.
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