Wells Fargo & Company Raises Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target to $480.00

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price target upped by equities researchers at Wells Fargo & Company from $460.00 to $480.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has an “overweight” rating on the software giant’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s target price indicates a potential upside of 16.49% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on MSFT. KeyCorp started coverage on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, March 21st. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $490.00 target price on the stock. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, March 15th. StockNews.com cut shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, March 25th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $431.03.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT traded down $2.51 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $412.07. 11,653,923 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 21,814,535. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.06 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.32, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 1.20. Microsoft has a 12-month low of $275.37 and a 12-month high of $430.82. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $415.53 and its 200-day moving average price is $383.95.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.76 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $62.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $61.14 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.27% and a return on equity of 38.40%. The company’s revenue was up 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.32 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Microsoft will post 11.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total value of $18,530,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 574,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $236,414,839.62. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total transaction of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at $22,770,926.10. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total value of $18,530,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 574,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $236,414,839.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,070,258 shares of company stock valued at $30,690,456 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Garrison Bradford & Associates Inc. increased its holdings in Microsoft by 7.9% in the first quarter. Garrison Bradford & Associates Inc. now owns 17,279 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $7,270,000 after purchasing an additional 1,265 shares during the last quarter. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 2.5% in the first quarter. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC now owns 55,849 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $23,497,000 after purchasing an additional 1,349 shares during the last quarter. Reliant Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 0.5% in the first quarter. Reliant Investment Management LLC now owns 12,727 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,355,000 after purchasing an additional 68 shares during the last quarter. Viewpoint Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% in the first quarter. Viewpoint Capital Management LLC now owns 13,442 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,655,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Occidental Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 17.1% in the first quarter. Occidental Asset Management LLC now owns 33,890 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $14,258,000 after acquiring an additional 4,941 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Company Profile

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.