Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock Rating Reaffirmed by Morgan Stanley

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reaffirmed by Morgan Stanley in a report released on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $506.00 target price on the software giant’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price points to a potential upside of 17.45% from the stock’s previous close.

MSFT has been the topic of several other reports. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $485.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, June 17th. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $520.00 to $510.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $494.72.

Microsoft Stock Down 1.0 %

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $430.81 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $421.60 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $423.78. The firm has a market cap of $3.20 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.30, a P/E/G ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.90. Microsoft has a fifty-two week low of $309.45 and a fifty-two week high of $468.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.27.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $2.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.90 by $0.05. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.96% and a return on equity of 35.95%. The company had revenue of $64.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.38 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.69 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Microsoft will post 13.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $417.41, for a total transaction of $6,009,869.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 786,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $328,473,703.53. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Amy Hood sold 38,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $410.55, for a total value of $15,600,900.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 496,369 shares in the company, valued at $203,784,292.95. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $417.41, for a total transaction of $6,009,869.18. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 786,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $328,473,703.53. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 190,629 shares of company stock valued at $77,916,485. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Rebalance LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Rebalance LLC now owns 3,451 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,542,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. First National Bank Sioux Falls raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. First National Bank Sioux Falls now owns 6,340 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,834,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Innova Wealth Partners raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Innova Wealth Partners now owns 4,239 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,594,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Arkansas Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Arkansas Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,719 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $646,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Partnership Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Partnership Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,202 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,609,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by 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.