Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Earns “Outperform” Rating from Wedbush

Wedbush reaffirmed their outperform rating on shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) in a research note released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $550.00 target price on the software giant’s stock. Wedbush also issued estimates for Microsoft’s Q1 2025 earnings at $3.10 EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at $3.33 EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at $3.56 EPS, Q1 2026 earnings at $3.60 EPS, Q2 2026 earnings at $3.79 EPS, Q3 2026 earnings at $3.79 EPS, Q4 2026 earnings at $4.18 EPS and FY2026 earnings at $15.35 EPS.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. TD Cowen upped their price objective on Microsoft from $470.00 to $495.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $485.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. UBS Group reaffirmed a buy rating and issued a $480.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an outperform rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $520.00 to $500.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $487.33.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT opened at $408.49 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $439.56 and its 200-day moving average price is $421.54. Microsoft has a 52 week low of $309.45 and a 52 week high of $468.35. The stock has a market cap of $3.04 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.90.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $2.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.90 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $64.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.38 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 35.95% and a net margin of 35.96%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.69 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 13.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.97%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $425.68, for a total transaction of $10,642,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 104,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,674,690.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 322 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $416.60, for a total value of $134,145.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 47,255 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,686,433. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $425.68, for a total transaction of $10,642,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 104,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,674,690.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 25,566 shares of company stock valued at $10,877,535 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth about $35,920,047,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth about $9,625,201,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Microsoft by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 664,908,939 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $250,032,357,000 after purchasing an additional 15,701,937 shares during the period. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the 1st quarter worth about $5,587,119,000. Finally, TCI Fund Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth about $4,000,376,000. 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.