Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target Cut to $510.00 by Analysts at UBS Group

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price objective dropped by analysts at UBS Group from $520.00 to $510.00 in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the software giant’s stock. UBS Group’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 22.62% from the company’s previous close.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on MSFT. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $455.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Microsoft from $465.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $480.00 price objective (up from $450.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $520.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $487.74.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock traded down $7.01 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $415.91. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 18,391,088 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,632,594. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $440.44 and a 200-day moving average price of $421.45. The company has a market capitalization of $3.09 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Microsoft has a 12-month low of $309.45 and a 12-month high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $2.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.90 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $64.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.38 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 37.54% and a net margin of 36.43%. The company’s revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.69 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 11.77 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $425.68, for a total transaction of $10,642,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 104,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $44,674,690.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 244 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $415.53, for a total value of $101,389.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 47,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,534,480.83. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $425.68, for a total transaction of $10,642,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 104,949 shares in the company, valued at $44,674,690.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 25,566 shares of company stock valued at $10,877,535 in the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Microsoft by 0.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 667,987,038 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $281,035,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,078,099 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,920,047,000. Capital International Investors boosted its stake in Microsoft by 1.0% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 83,571,070 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $35,160,020,000 after buying an additional 842,884 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth about $9,625,201,000. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 25,505,600 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,591,126,000 after buying an additional 277,881 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.