Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price objective increased by Citigroup Inc. from $39.00 to $40.00 in a research note published on Friday morning, Market Beat reports. Citigroup Inc. currently has a sell rating on the software giant’s stock.

MSFT has been the topic of a number of other reports. FBR & Co. raised Microsoft from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating and increased their target price for the stock from $57.00 to $66.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 14th. Cowen and Company reissued a hold rating and issued a $49.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, October 6th. Vetr raised Microsoft from a sell rating to a hold rating and set a $53.96 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 9th. RBC Capital reissued a buy rating and issued a $63.00 target price (down from $65.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday. Finally, Nomura upped their price target on Microsoft from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, December 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. The stock currently has a consensus rating of Buy and an average price target of $57.28.

Shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) traded down 0.16% during trading on Friday, reaching $55.00. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 34,092,474 shares. The firm has a market cap of $435.01 billion and a P/E ratio of 38.92. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $53.70 and its 200 day moving average is $49.50. Microsoft has a one year low of $39.72 and a one year high of $56.85.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 28th. The software giant reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.71 by $0.07. The company earned $25.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.24 billion. The company’s revenue was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.71 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Microsoft will post $2.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 18th will be issued a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.61%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 16th.

In other Microsoft news, insider G Mason Morfit sold 18,650,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.53, for a total value of $998,334,500.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

A number of large investors have made changes to their positions in the stock. Toth Financial raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 9.7% in the fourth quarter. Toth Financial now owns 131,406 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $7,290,000 after buying an additional 11,574 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Investment Group raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 38.0% in the fourth quarter. Renaissance Investment Group now owns 9,506 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $527,000 after buying an additional 2,616 shares in the last quarter. EQIS Capital Management raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 114.2% in the fourth quarter. EQIS Capital Management now owns 34,065 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,890,000 after buying an additional 18,163 shares in the last quarter. Stillwater Investment Management raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Stillwater Investment Management now owns 8,031 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $446,000 after buying an additional 306 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assetmark raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 143.4% in the third quarter. Assetmark now owns 159,057 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $7,040,000 after buying an additional 93,699 shares in the last quarter.

Microsoft Corporation is engaged in developing, licensing and supporting a range of software products and services. The Company also designs and sells hardware, and delivers online advertising to the customers. The Company operates in five segments: Devices and Consumer (NASDAQ:MSFT) Licensing, D&C Hardware, D&C Other, Commercial Licensing, and Commercial Other. The Company’s products include operating systems for computing devices, servers, phones, and other intelligent devices; server applications for distributed computing environments; productivity applications; business solution applications; desktop and server management tools; software development tools; video games; and online advertising. It also offers cloud-based solutions that provide customers with software, services and content over the Internet by way of shared computing resources located in centralized data centers. It provides consulting and product and solution support services.

12 Month Chart for NASDAQ:MSFT

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