Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Reaches New 12-Month Low Following Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) reached a new 52-week low on Monday after Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on the stock from $550.00 to $500.00. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. Microsoft traded as low as $368.29 and last traded at $370.46, with a volume of 4077373 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $378.80.

MSFT has been the topic of several other research reports. Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson raised Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $425.00 to $450.00 in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $508.86.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% during the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $427,000 after buying an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,658,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB lifted its position in Microsoft by 1.8% during the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 2,799,261 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,204,664,000 after acquiring an additional 49,735 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 41.3% in the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 173,303 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $74,572,000 after acquiring an additional 50,630 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 3.2% in the third quarter. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,631 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,423,000 after purchasing an additional 175 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Microsoft Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.74 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $405.52 and a 200-day moving average price of $419.10.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 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 period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.93 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.90%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 26.73%.

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.