Shares of Microsoft Corp. were up 0.7% in after-hours trading Monday after Jefferies analyst Brent Thill assumed coverage of software stocks and gave the tech giant's shares an upgrade to buy from hold. "We see a large diversified business with excellent visibility that has a clear line of sight into double-digit revenue growth for the foreseeable future," wrote Thill, who boosted Jefferies' target price on the stock to $160 from $93. He also sees multiple growth drivers within the company, including LinkedIn, Azure, and Office, and calls Microsoft the "safest large-cap investment option." Thill made some downgrades as well when he assumed coverage of the software universe, moving Jefferies' rating on Oracle Corp.'s stock to hold form buy. "In large cap, we prefer Microsoft over Oracle given the former's double-digit revenue growth at scale," he wrote. "We note that Oracle has significantly underperformed the IGV [software ETF] on a three-year, five-year and 10-year basis as the company loses ground in the infrastructure business as workloads migrate to the cloud." Thill has a new price target of $60 on the stock, down from $66 prior. Oracle shares were down 1.1% in after-hours trading. Thill also downgraded shares of Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. and Carbonite Inc. to hold from buy. Read More...
Shares of Microsoft Corp. were up 0.7% in after-hours trading Monday after Jefferies analyst Brent Thill assumed coverage of software stocks and gave the tech giant’s shares an upgrade to buy from hold. “We see a large diversified business with excellent visibility that has a clear line of sight into double-digit revenue growth for the foreseeable future,” wrote Thill, who boosted Jefferies’ target price on the stock to $160 from $93. He also sees multiple growth drivers within the company, including LinkedIn, Azure, and Office, and calls Microsoft the “safest large-cap investment option.” Thill made some downgrades as well when he assumed coverage of the software universe, moving Jefferies’ rating on Oracle Corp.’s stock to hold form buy. “In large cap, we prefer Microsoft over Oracle given the former’s double-digit revenue growth at scale,” he wrote. “We note that Oracle has significantly underperformed the IGV [software ETF] on a three-year, five-year and 10-year basis as the company loses ground in the infrastructure business as workloads migrate to the cloud.” Thill has a new price target of $60 on the stock, down from $66 prior. Oracle shares were down 1.1% in after-hours trading. Thill also downgraded shares of Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. and Carbonite Inc. to hold from buy.
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