Shares of Microsoft Corp. surged 2.0% in morning trading, enough to pace the Dow Jones Industrial Average's gainers, after more analysts became more bullish on the software and cloud giant ahead of fiscal fourth-quarter earnings scheduled for Wednesday. Raymond James's Robert Majek boosted his stock price target to $225 from $208, while maintaining the strong buy rating he's had for at least the past three years. Majek said revenue to beat expectations, given evidence of increased adoption of Office 365 and the Azure cloud offering, as well as signs of "strong" consumer spending in gaming. Stifel Nicolaus's Brad Reback raised his price target to $215 from $200 and reiterated his buy rating, which he's also had for at least the past three years. Reback believes Microsoft will report "healthy upside" to earnings and revenue expectations, also citing strength in Office 365, Azure and gaming offerings. The FactSet consensus is for EPS of $1.37 and revenue of $36.5 billion. No less than 14 analysts have raised Microsoft's price target this month, with the average target increasing to $220.16 from $205.18 at the end of June. Of the 33 analysts surveyed by FactSet, 30 have the equivalent of buy ratings and 3 have the equivalent of hold ratings. There are not bears. The stock has rallied 31.1% year to date, while the Dow has slipped 6.8%. Read More...
Shares of Microsoft Corp. surged 2.0% in morning trading, enough to pace the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s gainers, after more analysts became more bullish on the software and cloud giant ahead of fiscal fourth-quarter earnings scheduled for Wednesday. Raymond James’s Robert Majek boosted his stock price target to $225 from $208, while maintaining the strong buy rating he’s had for at least the past three years. Majek said revenue to beat expectations, given evidence of increased adoption of Office 365 and the Azure cloud offering, as well as signs of “strong” consumer spending in gaming. Stifel Nicolaus’s Brad Reback raised his price target to $215 from $200 and reiterated his buy rating, which he’s also had for at least the past three years. Reback believes Microsoft will report “healthy upside” to earnings and revenue expectations, also citing strength in Office 365, Azure and gaming offerings. The FactSet consensus is for EPS of $1.37 and revenue of $36.5 billion. No less than 14 analysts have raised Microsoft’s price target this month, with the average target increasing to $220.16 from $205.18 at the end of June. Of the 33 analysts surveyed by FactSet, 30 have the equivalent of buy ratings and 3 have the equivalent of hold ratings. There are not bears. The stock has rallied 31.1% year to date, while the Dow has slipped 6.8%.
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