What happened
On Monday, two fresh analyst takes on Microsoft (MSFT +1.22%) made the stock a winner. The storied tech-company's share price climbed 3.1% higher, nearly three times the percentage gain of the S&P 500 index on the day.
So what
The first take was published by Stifel's Brad Reback. Shortly before the market opened, he lifted his Microsoft price target to $290 per share from $275. Reback maintained his buy recommendation on the tech-giant's shares.
The reasoning behind the new take wasn't immediately apparent. However, Reback wasn't the only analyst expressing a bullish opinion about Microsoft on the first day of the week.
On Monday, Morgan Stanley prognosticator Keith Weiss reiterated his overweight (read: buy) recommendation on the stock at a more ambitious $307 per-share price target. Even though the company has seen a boost in popularity among investors lately because of its involvement with ChatGPT developer OpenAI, its fundamentals are quite solid and position it for growth.
"Easing compares [comparables], price increases, waning FX headwinds and decelerating [operating expenses] all work to accelerate EPS [earnings-per-share] growth to double digits by Q4, with accelerating EPS growth in each of the next five quarters," Weiss predicted.
MSFT Microsoft
NASDAQ · As of 2:53 PM ET 10/15/26
Now what
The analyst was particularly encouraged by Microsoft's performance in the cloud segment. According to his forecast, margins for the segment are likely to peak at around 72% this year, helping the company to approach 70% across all its businesses. That's a very high level for a company in any sector, even in the often very profitable tech industry.
