Along with producing a 9.82% extended-session stock upsurge from $390.54 to $428.91, Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) latest earnings report led to a veritable deluge of analyst rating and price target upgrades.
Furthermore, among more than a dozen notes, only one positioned MSFT shares as a ‘Hold.’ Still, even the comparatively bearish assessment by Stifel Nicolaus’ Brad Reback came with a stock price forecast lift from $400 to $450.
On the other end of the spectrum, Rishi Jaluria of RBC Capital assessed that Microsoft shares are headed toward $640 in the coming 12 months, while Bernstein’s Mark Moerdler dropped the old $646 price target in favor of the new $647.
Both of the bullish analysts also issued positive recommendations for MSFT stock, much like the vast majority of their peers.
Overall, and following the latest string of notes, Microsoft is considered a ‘Strong Buy’ on Wall Street and expected to rally 42.44% to $556.29 on average by analysts, per the data Finbold retrieved from TipRanks on July 30.
Why Microsoft stock is seen as a ‘Strong Buy’ on Wall Street
Meanwhile, the Thursday morning positivity can be linked directly to the blue-chip technology giant’s latest earnings report. Specifically, Microsoft reported $90.01 billion in revenue and earnings per share (EPS) of $4.74.
Forecasts called for $4.24 EPS and $87.62 billion in sales, meaning the big tech company managed a double beat.
Additionally, Azure cloud growth accelerated to 43% – faster than the predicted 40% – reinforcing the positivity, and investors appear to have remained unfazed concerning capital expenditures (CapEx), in stark contrast to Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) filing made a week before and Meta’s (NASDAQ: META) presentation made public on Wednesday afternoon.
Investors react to latest Microsoft earnings report
Indeed, after dropping 17.42% between January 2 – the first regular session of the year – and the closing bell on July 29, Microsoft stock suddenly soared 9.82% to its press time price of $428.91.
The move might present a turning point for the embattled technology giant, and it decreased the year-to-date (YTD) market capitalization loss to roughly $500 billion, down from $750 billion.
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