Cantor Fitzgerald Upgrades Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) to “Strong-Buy”

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) was upgraded by analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm presently has a $509.00 target price on the software giant’s stock. Cantor Fitzgerald’s target price suggests a potential upside of 18.64% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on MSFT. StockNews.com cut Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. DA Davidson cut shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. TD Cowen cut their price target on shares of Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $511.53.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.0 %

MSFT stock opened at $429.03 on Thursday. Microsoft has a fifty-two week low of $385.58 and a fifty-two week high of $468.35. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $429.19 and a 200-day moving average of $426.57. The company has a market capitalization of $3.19 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.40, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.30.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.99 EPS. Microsoft’s revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Microsoft will post 12.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total transaction of $3,050,352.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. The trade was a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total value of $414,720.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 57,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,850,961.92. This represents a 1.71 % decrease in their position. 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 currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Net Worth Advisory Group bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 3rd quarter worth $2,645,000. Oak Ridge Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 7.6% in the third quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 263,534 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $113,399,000 after acquiring an additional 18,544 shares during the period. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its position in Microsoft by 1.6% during the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 1,975,200 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $882,816,000 after acquiring an additional 31,401 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.9% in the third quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA now owns 96,021 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $41,318,000 after acquiring an additional 880 shares during the period. Finally, Focus Financial Network Inc. grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 76,296 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $32,830,000 after purchasing an additional 1,489 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.