Market Update: Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) – Microsoft Was Right, Video Game Discs Are Stupid

[at Forbes] – Yesterday, I got my hard copy of The Division. Two and a half hours after putting the disc in, I was playing the game. With discs taking almost as long to install as digital downloads, taking up just as much hard drive space, and being much more inconvenient to acquire, I just don’t see the point anymore. In short, I’m Microsoft in 2013. Read more on this. Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) , with a current value of $408.99B, started trading this morning at $50.80. Today’s price range has been between $50.60 and $52.12 per share with the price of the stock fluctuating between $39.72 to $56.85 over the last 52 weeks. Priced at 18.49x this year’s forecasted earnings, MSFT shares are relatively expensive compared to the industry’s 16.70x forward p/e ratio. And for passive income investors, the company pays shareholders $1.44 per share annually in dividends, yielding 2.77%. Consensus earnings for the current quarter by the 29 sell-side analysts covering the stock is an estimate of $0.64 per share, which would be $0.03 better than the year-ago quarter and a $0.05 sequential decrease. Investors should also note that the full-year EPS estimate of $2.76 is a $0.30 improvement when compared to the previous year’s annual results. The quarterly earnings estimate is predicated on a consensus revenue forecast of $22.08 Billion. If reported, that would be a 1.61% increase over the year-ago quarter. More recently, Macquarie Initiated MSFT at Neutral (Mar 4, 2016). Previously, Morgan Stanley upgraded MSFT from Equal-Weight to Overweight. The average price target for MSFT shares is $58.39, which is 14.94% above where the stock opened this morning. See more in (NASDAQ:MSFT) Similar Articles: Market Update: Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) – Microsoft Makes Windows 10 ‘Free Upgrades’ Worse Stock Update: Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) – MICROSOFT IS UP 10%: Here’s what a one-point move in MSFT does to the Dow Stock Update: Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) – Smart money makes ‘stupid’ trade on Microsoft