Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) Earns Overweight Rating from UBS AG

UBS AG reiterated their overweight rating on shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in a report published on Thursday, www.flashratings.com reports.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI restated a buy rating and set a $80.00 price target on shares of Microsoft Corporation in a report on Friday, August 18th. BidaskClub upgraded shares of Microsoft Corporation from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, August 16th. Credit Suisse Group set a $84.00 price target on shares of Microsoft Corporation and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday, August 11th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $87.00 price target on shares of Microsoft Corporation and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday, August 11th. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (The) set a $88.00 price target on shares of Microsoft Corporation and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday, August 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. The stock currently has an average rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $76.26.

Shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) traded up 0.18% on Thursday, reaching $72.82. 12,794,301 shares of the company were exchanged. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $72.63 and a 200-day moving average of $68.58. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $55.61 and a 52-week high of $74.42. The company has a market capitalization of $560.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.87 and a beta of 1.01.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 20th. The software giant reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.71 by $0.27. The company had revenue of $24.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $24.29 billion. Microsoft Corporation had a net margin of 23.57% and a return on equity of 36.81%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.69 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post $3.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 17th will be paid a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 15th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.14%. Microsoft Corporation’s dividend payout ratio is presently 57.78%.

In related news, insider Jean Philippe Courtois sold 26,763 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total transaction of $1,980,462.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 544,080 shares in the company, valued at approximately $40,261,920. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider G Mason Morfit sold 7,000,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.56, for a total transaction of $507,920,000.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation by 4.6% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 564,052,011 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $38,880,105,000 after buying an additional 25,053,413 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of 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. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Microsoft Corporation during the fourth quarter valued at about $4,334,099,000. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation by 212.3% in the second quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 69,663,044 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,801,874,000 after buying an additional 47,353,245 shares during the period. Finally, Janus Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.64% 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.