Two Stocks To Tuck Away: Microsoft Corporation (MSFT), Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) - Financial Mercury

The shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has been pegged with a rating of Buy by Nomura in its latest research note that was published on January 31st, 2019. The research company has also assigned a $113 price target. Nomura wasn’t the only research firm that published a report of Microsoft Corporation, with other equities research analysts also giving their opinion on the stock. Citigroup advised investors in its research note published on January 31st, 2019, to Neutral the MSFT stock while also putting a $110 price target. The stock had earned Buy rating from BofA/Merrill when it published its report on October 25th, 2018. That day the BofA/Merrill set price target on the stock to $140. The stock was given Buy rating by BofA/Merrill in its report released on October 22nd, 2018, the day when the price target on the stock was placed at $135. Wedbush was of a view that MSFT is Outperform in its latest report on October 19th, 2018 while giving it a price target of $140. Macquarie thinks that MSFT is worth Outperform rating. This was contained in the firm’s report on October 12th, 2018.

Amongst the analysts that rated the stock, 1 have recommended investors to sell it, 2 believe it has the potential for further growth, thus rating it as Hold while 18 advised investors to purchase the stock. The consensus currently stands at a Hold while its average price target is $125.61. The price of the stock the last time has raised by 25.64% from its Week high price while it is raised higher than its 52-Week low price. A look at the stock’s other technical shows that its 14-day RSI now stands at 60.30.

The shares of the company added by 2.11% during the trading session on Thursday, reaching a low of $106.87 while ending the day at $109.41. During the trading session, a total of 28.85 million shares were traded which represents a 20.85% incline from the average session volume which is 36.45M shares. MSFT had ended its last session trading at 107.15. Microsoft Corporation currently has a market cap of $829.18B, while its P/E ratio stands at 25.44, while its P/E earnings growth sits at 7.00, with a beta of 1.20. Microsoft Corporation debt-to-equity ratio currently stands at 0.85, while its quick ratio hovers at 3.10. MSFT 52-week low price stands at $87.08 while its 52-week high price is $116.18.

The company in its last quarterly report recorded $1.10 earnings per share which is above the $1.09 predicted by most analysts. The Microsoft Corporation generated $32,471.00 million in revenue during the last quarter, which is slightly lower than the $32,512.20 million predicted by analysts. In the second quarter last year, the firm recorded $1.14 earnings per share. Compared to the same quarter last year, the firm’s revenue was down by -3.64%. Microsoft Corporation has the potential to record 4.30 EPS for the current fiscal year, according to equities analysts.

Investment analysts at Morgan Stanley published a research note on December 12th, 2018 where it informed investors and clients that Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) is now rated as Equal-Weight. Citigroup also rated VZ as Reiterated on January 31st, 2019, with its price target of $110 suggesting that VZ could surge by 5.06% from its current share price. Even though the stock has been trading at $55.76/share, analysts expect it to surge higher by 0.70% to reach $59.14/share. It started the day trading at $56.715 and traded between $55.46 and $56.15 throughout the trading session.

A look at its technical shows that VZ’s 50-day SMA is 55.86 while its 200-day SMA stands at 53.75. The stock has a high of $61.58 for the year while the low is $46.08. The company’s P/E ratio currently sits at 14.93, while the P/B ratio is 4.26. The company’s average trading volume currently stands at 17.61M shares, which means that the short-interest ratio is just 1.74 days. Over the past seven days, the company moved, with its shift of 3.07%. Looking further, the stock has dropped -6.74% over the past 90 days while it gained 2.74% over the last six months.

The change in the stock’s fortunes has led to several institutional investors altering their holdings of the stock. The Vanguard Group Inc bought more VZ shares, increasing its portfolio by +3.93% during the last quarter. This move now sees The Vanguard Group Inc purchasing 11,689,272 shares in the last quarter, thus it now holds 309,457,753 shares of VZ, with a total valuation of $17,038,743,880. BlackRock Fund Advisors meanwhile bought more VZ shares in the recently filed quarter, changing its stake to $10,754,907,021 worth of shares. SSgA Funds Management Inc followed the path by increasing its VZ portfolio by +1.13% in the quarter. This means that SSgA Funds Management Inc bought 1,705,217 shares in the last quarter and now controls 152,310,884 shares of the VZ stock, with the valuation hitting $8,386,237,273.

Similarly, Capital Research Management Co decreased its Verizon Communications Inc. shares by -7.21% during the recently filed quarter. After selling -7,178,424 shares in the last quarter, the firm now controls 92,320,780 shares of Verizon Communications Inc. which are valued at $5,083,182,147. In the same vein, Capital Research Management Co decreased its Verizon Communications Inc. shares by during the most recent reported quarter. The firm sold -2,453,975 shares during the quarter which decreased its stakes to 69,280,006 shares and is now valued at $3,814,557,130. Following these latest developments, around 0.04% of Verizon Communications Inc. stocks are owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Let's block ads! (Why?)