Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Trading Down 0.4% – What’s Next?

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) dropped 0.4% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $412.27 and last traded at $414.32. Approximately 6,624,768 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 70% from the average daily volume of 21,887,340 shares. The stock had previously closed at $416.13.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the subject of several research reports. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $540.00 to $530.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $425.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $510.96.

Microsoft Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $3.05 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.03, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.90. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $425.98 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $422.79. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 period in the previous year, the business earned $2.93 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.81%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 26.73%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total transaction of $1,118,525.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 49,352 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,080,578.32. The trade was a 4.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 8,000 shares of company stock worth $3,493,820. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. PVG Asset Management Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth about $542,000. Perennial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth about $31,589,000. Vermillion Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $815,000. AlphaCore Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. AlphaCore Capital LLC now owns 28,983 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $12,216,000 after acquiring an additional 864 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 9.9% during the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 5,680,071 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,394,150,000 after acquiring an additional 510,820 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

About Microsoft

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.