Citigroup Increases Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target to $520.00

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price objective boosted by analysts at Citigroup from $495.00 to $520.00 in a research report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the software giant’s stock. Citigroup’s target price indicates a potential upside of 15.61% from the stock’s previous close.

MSFT has been the topic of several other research reports. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on Microsoft from $475.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, May 24th. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and set a $480.00 price objective (up from $450.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, June 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $467.12.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of MSFT opened at $449.78 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.34 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.94, a PEG ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a current ratio of 1.24. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $419.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $407.17. Microsoft has a 52 week low of $309.45 and a 52 week high of $450.94.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $61.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.86 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 37.54% and a net margin of 36.43%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.45 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Microsoft will post 11.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 244 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 47,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,534,480.83. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 244 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $415.53, for a total transaction of $101,389.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 47,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,534,480.83. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 104,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $44,674,690.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 25,566 shares of company stock worth $10,877,535 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth $45,000. Neo Ivy Capital Management bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $58,000. Richardson Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1,290.0% during the 1st quarter. Richardson Capital Management LLC now owns 139 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 129 shares in the last quarter. PayPay Securities Corp boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 23.7% during the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 188 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $71,000 after purchasing an additional 36 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bellevue Group AG lifted its position in Microsoft by 47.5% during the 1st quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 180 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $76,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. 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.