Citigroup Trims Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Target Price to $475.00

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its target price decreased by Citigroup from $480.00 to $475.00 in a research report report published on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the software giant’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Wedbush reissued an outperform rating and set a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Raymond James raised their price objective on Microsoft from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Microsoft from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. UBS Group reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $480.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on Microsoft from $465.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $432.13.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $399.12 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $414.86 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $385.33. The company has a market cap of $2.97 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.09, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.89. Microsoft has a fifty-two week low of $275.37 and a fifty-two week high of $430.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a current ratio of 1.22.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.76 by $0.17. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.40% and a net margin of 36.27%. The company had revenue of $62.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $61.14 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.32 EPS. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Microsoft will post 11.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 27.12%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of Microsoft 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of Microsoft 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total value of $1,950,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,770,926.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Monumental Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,000. Friedenthal Financial bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth approximately $45,000. Bellevue Group AG bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth approximately $46,000. Neo Ivy Capital Management bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth approximately $58,000. Finally, Richardson Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1,290.0% in the 1st quarter. Richardson Capital Management LLC now owns 139 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $59,000 after purchasing an additional 129 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.