Microsoft Corporation (MSFT): Looking For Quality Growth In A Volatile World

The average 12-month price target analysts expect from Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is $125.82. This mean price target represents 19.86% upside over its previous closing price. The stock enjoyed an overall uptrend of 22.71% from the beginning of 2018. The closing share price quoted for November 14, 2018 was $104.97. The -1.84% drop might have been tempting for an investor to sell at this point but in fact that would prove a short-sighted mistake, as sell-side analysts think there is almost 52.42% more gain yet to come for shareholders. Analysts seemed to set $160 as highest price target on its way to greater gains. The median price target they presented was $125.4 for the next 12-months, which suggests a 19.46% upside from current levels. Some analysts have a lowest price target on the stock of $75, which would mean a -28.55% gain in value.

A fresh roundup today notes that MSFT stock has added around 24.89% of its value in the past 12 months, suggesting more investors have expressed joy over about in that time period. If we turn to the Street in general, the positives still outweigh the negatives as we can see that Microsoft Corporation (MSFT), have a buy (1.7) analyst consensus rating. In the current time, the stock has 32 buy and 1 hold ratings. The stock registered its 52-week high of $116.18 on October 03 and its 52-week low of $80.7 on December 04. Currently, the shares are trading $4.51 above its YTD moving average of $100.46.

Moving on, Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) last reported its September 2018 earnings. For brief highlights, it performed well in that quarter, with earnings up 36% year-over-year at $1.14. The company surprised analysts by 19 who were expecting $0.96 per share. Overall, its quarterly revenues jumped by 19% to reach $29.08 billion, while it had reported $24.54 billion in the same period a year ago. To see what investors should really expect from its December 2018 financial results consensus analyst estimates are calling for current quarter earnings per share of $1.09, up from $0.96 in the same quarter a year ago. However, earnings-per-share are expected to see growth of 13.28% in next year. From there, the company believes it can achieve a long-term annual earnings growth rate of 13.68 %. At the other end of the income statement, we have seen revenue of $114.91 billion over the trailing 12 months.

To help you decide whether it’s worth the wait (and the money), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is currently trading at 25.04X the company’s trailing-12-month earnings per share, which represents a discount compared to the sector’s 1244.26X and comes in below its industry’s 33.88X. The most popular method for valuing a stock is to study the historic Price-to-Earnings (P/E) ratio using reported earnings for the past 12 months. The EPS number for this stock in the most recent four quarters of earnings stood at $4.19. P/E ratio is so popular because it’s simple, it’s effective, and, tautologically, because everyone uses it.

The 14-day Absolute ATR (Average True Range) on Wednesday, November 14 of 2018 shows that the price on average moves $3.49. The average daily volatility is 2.58% over the past week. Low volatility is good for the stock and it means we have calm and confident investors. If you check recent Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) volume, you will see that it has changed to 39.39 million shares versus the average daily volume of 30.49 million shares.

When you look at the daily chart for MSFT, you will observe the stock held 9.14% gains in the 6-month period and maintains 30.07% distance from its most recent low. The past 5-day performance for the share stays negative at -6.24% but down -2.44% from its three-week moving average. Comparing to 50-day SMA, Microsoft Corporation shares price is now down -4.69%. It also closed 3.42% lower from its 200-day SMA. This is often seen as the last line of defense for long term trends to find support at, else be considered broken and/or in a bear market. The daily chart of the stock more clearly reveals the slide in prices as it closed Wednesday with a 1-month performance at -5.43%.

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