Bank of America Has Lowered Expectations for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock Price

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price objective lowered by Bank of America from $510.00 to $480.00 in a report published on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. Bank of America currently has a buy rating on the software giant’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also recently issued reports on MSFT. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $520.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, January 27th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. 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. Mizuho cut their target price on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Scotiabank initiated coverage on Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $470.00 price target for the company. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $499.97.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $367.78 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.35. Microsoft has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-week high of $468.35. The company has a fifty day moving average of $389.13 and a 200-day moving average of $413.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.73 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 in the previous year, the company earned $2.93 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.73%.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC now owns 5,967 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,515,000 after buying an additional 130 shares during the period. Oak Ridge Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 7.6% in the third quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 263,534 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $113,399,000 after purchasing an additional 18,544 shares during the period. Focus Financial Network Inc. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% in the third quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 76,296 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $32,830,000 after purchasing an additional 1,489 shares in the last quarter. Campbell Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 3rd quarter valued at $3,314,000. Finally, Romano Brothers AND Company boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Romano Brothers AND Company now owns 42,176 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $18,148,000 after buying an additional 962 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.