Microsoft PT Raised to $50.00 at Nomura (MSFT)

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had its price target upped by Nomura from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday. The firm currently has a buy rating on the stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Analysts at Zacks reiterated a neutral rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, June 12th. They now have a $43.00 price target on the stock. Separately, analysts at Citigroup Inc. reiterated a neutral rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, June 12th. They now have a $41.00 price target on the stock, up previously from $35.00. Finally, analysts at FBR Capital Markets upgraded shares of Microsoft from a market perform rating to an outperform rating in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. They now have a $49.00 price target on the stock, up previously from $43.00. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $39.35.

Microsoft ( NASDAQ:MSFT) traded up 3.38% during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $43.885. 35,479,104 shares of the company's stock traded hands. Microsoft has a 1-year low of $30.84 and a 1-year high of $42.47. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $41.41 and a 200-day moving average of $39.21. The company has a market cap of $362.5 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.90. Microsoft also was the target of a large increase in short interest in June. As of June 30th, there was short interest totalling 92,223,934 shares, an increase of 11.7% from the June 13th total of 82,583,853 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 30,587,666 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.0 days. Currently, 1.2% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the analysts' consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $20.40 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.38 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.72 earnings per share. Microsoft's revenue was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Microsoft will post $2.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which is scheduled for Thursday, September 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 21st will be given a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 19th.

Microsoft Corporation is engaged in developing, licensing and supporting a range of software products and services.