Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target Lowered to $500.00 at Jefferies Financial Group

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price objective decreased by research analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from $550.00 to $500.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the software giant’s stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s price target indicates a potential upside of 30.82% from the company’s previous close.

MSFT has been the topic of several other reports. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $508.86.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $382.19 on Monday. Microsoft has a twelve month low of $367.24 and a twelve month high of $468.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The firm has a market cap of $2.84 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a 50 day moving average of $403.52 and a 200-day moving average of $418.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.93 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% in the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $427,000 after buying an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,658,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB boosted its position in Microsoft by 1.8% during the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 2,799,261 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,204,664,000 after purchasing an additional 49,735 shares during the period. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA grew its holdings in Microsoft by 3.7% during the third quarter. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA now owns 1,381,517 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $594,467,000 after purchasing an additional 49,149 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stonekeep Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 5.5% in the third quarter. Stonekeep Investments LLC now owns 5,701 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,453,000 after purchasing an additional 297 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.