Microsoft’s (MSFT) “Outperform” Rating Reaffirmed at Wedbush

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reiterated by stock analysts at Wedbush in a report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $500.00 price target on the software giant’s stock. Wedbush’s price target suggests a potential upside of 23.06% from the company’s current price. Wedbush also issued estimates for Microsoft’s Q4 2024 earnings at $2.89 EPS, FY2024 earnings at $11.74 EPS, Q1 2025 earnings at $3.17 EPS, Q2 2025 earnings at $3.31 EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at $3.32 EPS and FY2025 earnings at $13.29 EPS.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $465.00 price objective (up from $455.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $480.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $455.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $452.61.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $406.32 on Friday. Microsoft has a twelve month low of $295.25 and a twelve month high of $430.82. The firm has a market cap of $3.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.18, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a 50 day moving average of $414.48 and a 200 day moving average of $388.12. The company has a quick ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 38.87%. The company had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.86 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.45 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Microsoft will post 11.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total transaction of $18,530,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 574,129 shares in the company, valued at approximately $236,414,839.62. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total transaction of $18,530,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 574,129 shares in the company, valued at approximately $236,414,839.62. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the business’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 sale, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,770,926.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC now owns 14,103 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,453,000 after purchasing an additional 68 shares in the last quarter. Caliber Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Caliber Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,888 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,806,000 after purchasing an additional 316 shares in the last quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 65,525 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $20,689,000 after purchasing an additional 844 shares in the last quarter. McGuire Investment Group LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. McGuire Investment Group LLC now owns 52,388 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $16,541,000 after buying an additional 1,922 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kentucky Retirement Systems purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 3rd quarter valued at about $188,066,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

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.