Microsoft’s (MSFT) “Outperform” Rating Reaffirmed at Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada reissued their outperform rating on shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) in a research note released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $500.00 price objective on the software giant’s stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on the company. Loop Capital upped their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, October 28th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $509.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $520.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $509.72.

Microsoft Stock Down 6.2 %

MSFT stock opened at $414.99 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $432.55 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $424.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 1.29. Microsoft has a 1-year low of $385.58 and a 1-year high of $468.35. The firm has a market cap of $3.09 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.41, a PEG ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.90.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 34.38%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.93 EPS. Research analysts predict that Microsoft will post 12.89 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.80%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 26.73%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $417.00, for a total transaction of $10,425,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,294 shares in the company, valued at $48,911,598. The trade was a 17.57 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total value of $3,050,352.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 103,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. This represents a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Hoge Financial Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 33.4% during the 4th quarter. Hoge Financial Services LLC now owns 4,829 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,035,000 after buying an additional 1,208 shares during the last quarter. Sierra Ocean LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,880,000. WBH Advisory Inc. grew its position in Microsoft by 76.0% in the fourth quarter. WBH Advisory Inc. now owns 65,173 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $27,471,000 after acquiring an additional 28,134 shares in the last quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 20,926 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $8,820,000 after purchasing an additional 420 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Keystone Financial Services lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Keystone Financial Services now owns 2,763 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,165,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. 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.