JPMorgan Chase & Co. Raises Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Price Target to $470.00

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price objective upped by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $440.00 to $470.00 in a report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an overweight rating on the software giant’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also weighed in on MSFT. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Friday. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $485.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday. KeyCorp started coverage on Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. They issued an overweight rating and a $490.00 target price for the company. BNP Paribas upgraded Microsoft from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and set a $471.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $460.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $452.61.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT opened at $402.25 on Friday. Microsoft has a 1 year low of $303.40 and a 1 year high of $430.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.23. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $414.45 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $389.01. The firm has a market cap of $2.99 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.83, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.89.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $61.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.86 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 37.54%. The company’s revenue was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.45 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 11.71 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 25.97%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total value of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at $22,770,926.10. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total transaction of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at $22,770,926.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock valued at $30,690,456. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Norges Bank bought a new position in Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $35,920,047,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $9,625,201,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 664,908,939 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $250,032,357,000 after purchasing an additional 15,701,937 shares during the last quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. bought a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth approximately $4,000,376,000. Finally, FMR LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 215,874,152 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $68,162,263,000 after buying an additional 5,762,902 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.