Microsoft
is one analyst’s top megacap stock to own as the year comes to a close, partly because of the coming launch of its Copilot artificial-intelligence-based assistance software.
Piper Sandler analyst Brent Bracelin wrote in a research note Sunday that
Microsoft
(ticker: MSFT) is his highest conviction large-cap stock to own into year-end. He rates Microsoft as Overweight with a $400 price target, which implies a 22% increase from the stock’s closing price on Friday.
Bracelin cited the planned general release of Microsoft 365 Copilot as a reason for his upbeat view. The software, which will work with products such as the Bing search engine and the Office software suite, is scheduled to be generally available to enterprise customers on Nov. 1.
“So far, the accessibility of M365 Copilot under a paid preview has been limited to ~600 enterprises. This all changes with the formal GA release on November 1,” Bracelin wrote
Companies appear to be interested, he said. The monthly number of unique visitors to adoption.microsoft.com, which is Microsoft’s information page for companies making the transition to use products such as Copilot, increased 181% in September from August.
“We are encouraged by 3P web traffic data showing a sharp spike in unique visitors that could be prepping for Copilot,” the analyst wrote.
Bracelin is far from the only analyst that has a bullish rating on the stock. Of the 53 analysts surveyed by FactSet, 46 say the stock is a Buy, seven say it’s a Hold and none say it’s a Sell.
Shares of Microsoft were 1.3% higher at $332.12 early on Monday, which left the stock with a gain of 39% so far this year.
Write to Angela Palumbo at angela.palumbo@dowjones.com
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