Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Short Interest Down 14.2% in February

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) was the recipient of a large decrease in short interest in February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 53,630,000 shares, a decrease of 14.2% from the January 31st total of 62,490,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 22,020,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.4 days. Approximately 0.7% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total transaction of $1,118,525.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 49,352 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,080,578.32. This trade represents a 4.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp raised its holdings in Microsoft by 27.0% during the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $427,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. grew its position 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 buying an additional 38 shares during the period. Argent Trust Co raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% during the second quarter. Argent Trust Co now owns 277,466 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $124,014,000 after buying an additional 5,365 shares during the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 2.2% in the second quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 270,546 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $120,921,000 after buying an additional 5,903 shares during the period. Finally, Tredje AP fonden boosted its stake in Microsoft by 10.9% in the second quarter. Tredje AP fonden now owns 1,832,885 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $819,208,000 after acquiring an additional 179,700 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on MSFT shares. DA Davidson reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $425.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Mizuho dropped their price target 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. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $540.00 to $530.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $509.54.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT traded down $6.86 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $390.03. 10,390,901 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 22,811,969. Microsoft has a one year low of $381.00 and a one year high of $468.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.90 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $417.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $422.06. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 last year, the business posted $2.93 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

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.