Microsoft

Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss maintained Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) with an Overweight and raised the price target from $465 to $520. Weiss highlighted that as investors hone in on the Generative AI cycle and look to identify assets able to monetize and compound the benefits of these innovations, he extended his discrete Microsoft forecast to 5-years, highlighting the durable EPS story enabled by their strong secular positioning. Weiss expected Microsoft’s leadership position for multiple secular growth trends to translate into a 14% revenue CAGR and 16% EPS CAGR through fiscal 2029. Weiss noted that Microsoft’s improving positioning for Public Cloud drives an increasing share of the overall IT wallet, as evidenced by Microsoft Commercial revenues gaining 3.5% points of share within IDC’s overall software market estimates over the past five years. The analyst noted that more robust positioning for Enterprise PaaS workloads should enable Azure to take the market share lead in Public […]

Microsoft (MSFT) was “being proactive” when it unbundled Teams from Office globally, Macquarie said in a note Monday, citing a Reuters report on the company’s decision. The company did the same in Europe in 2023 to avoid the scrutiny of antitrust investigators after Slack owner Salesforce (CRM) accused Microsoft of abusing its market power in the operating system space to drive out competitors like Slack in the messaging field. Macquarie said that considering history, it wouldn’t be surprising if the company’s moves on Monday don’t sway the regulators examining Microsoft. “Microsoft’s rationale for the new rollout makes sense,” the firm said, “though we note it is unlikely to deter competitors’ complaints altogether, particularly around the competitiveness of fees and the ongoing ability of Teams-competitive products to natively integrate with the rest of the Office application portfolio.” The firm said that Microsoft’s announcement showed that it is willing to compromise where

Jefferies analyst Brent Thill maintains Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) with a Buy and raises the price target from $465 to $550.

Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives maintains Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) with a Outperform and raises the price target from $475 to $500.

Truist Securities analyst Joel Fishbein reiterates Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) with a Buy and maintains $600 price target.

Microsoft’s (MSFT) launch of its new AI business unit “brings balance, not displacement” to its partnership with OpenAI, Macquarie said Thursday in a report. The launch is “another example of Microsoft’s strategic navigation of the rapidly evolving AI landscape,” Macquarie said. Microsoft selected an external team of AI experts to lead its new unit, and the company plans to build products with internally developed AI technology and key partners such as OpenAI, the report said. “In our view, the decision to create a separate AI unit staffed principally by accomplished AI researchers suggests Microsoft investing into its own AI competencies,” Macquarie said. Macquarie reiterated its outperform rating and $455 price target on Microsoft.

Microsoft’s (MSFT) announcement this week that it will hire key talent from artificial intelligence research firm Inflection to spearhead a new Microsoft AI business will further cement its leadership and ability to strategically navigate the evolving market, Macquarie said in a note emailed Friday. The brokerage reiterated an outperform rating and $455 price target on Microsoft’s shares. On Tuesday, the company said it was hiring Mustafa Suleyman, chief executive of startup Inflection AI, and Inflection Chief Scientist Karen Simonyan to lead Microsoft AI, a new organization focused on advancing Copilot and other consumer AI products and research. Terms of the deal were not disclosed but Reuters reported the moves as a licensing deal with Inflection valued at $650 million. Microsoft declined to comment to MT Newswires on the structure and price of the deal. “The decision to create a separate AI unit staffed principally by accomplished AI researchers suggests Microsoft

Keybanc analyst Jason Ader initiates coverage on Microsoft with a Overweight rating and announces Price Target of $490.

Microsoft Says As Part Transition, Mikhail Parakhin & His Entire Team, Including Copilot, Bing, & Edge; Misha Bilenko & GenAI Team To Report To Mustafa; Kevin Scott Continues As CTO & EVP Of AI, Responsible For All-Up AI Strategy。

Microsoft: Announces Collaboration With NVIDIA to Accelerate Healthcare and Life Sciences Innovation With Advanced Cloud, AI and Accelerated Computing Capabilities。

Microsoft-backed (MSFT) OpenAI continues to be the “uncontested leader” in artificial intelligence despite the cases filed against it by Tesla (TSLA) Chief Executive Elon Musk and The New York Times (NYT), Macquarie said in a note emailed on Monday. Musk is seeking the removal of GPT-4 from the scope of Microsoft’s intellectual property licensing agreement with OpenAI, while The New York Times sued OpenAI for copyright infringement. “But, regardless of these cases, we have seen the performance gap between GPT-4 and other models narrow, but certainly not close, throughout 2023,” the note said. Macquarie said Microsoft’s Copilot product roadmap would likely be set back if GPT-4 becomes inaccessible to the company because of any of those cases. “But we do not think it would derail its AI product initiatives by any means,” Macquarie said. Macquarie maintained its outperform rating and $455 price target on Microsoft stock.