Microsoft’s (MSFT) Hold Rating Reaffirmed at Westpark Capital

Westpark Capital restated their hold rating on shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) in a research note released on Thursday,Benzinga reports.

MSFT has been the topic of several other research reports. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $515.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 7th. KeyCorp reissued a “sector weight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Mizuho lowered their price target on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $530.00 to $472.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $507.77.

Microsoft Stock Up 7.6 %

MSFT opened at $425.40 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $3.16 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.25, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $384.18 and its 200 day simple moving average is $411.01. Microsoft has a 52 week low of $344.79 and a 52 week high of $468.35. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.22 by $0.24. The business had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $68.54 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 33.36%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.94 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 26.73%.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Newton One Investments LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 66.7% in the first quarter. Newton One Investments LLC now owns 75 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Ball & Co Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $38,000. IFS Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 53.8% during the 4th quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 100 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management bought a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth $44,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.