Microsoft (MSFT -1.30%) is a sprawling, powerful company, and as a stock, it's surely powerful enough to muscle a 10% share price increase over the next 12 months or so.
At least that's the view of one market professional following the stock. He recently commented on the company's unbundling of one of its more controversial pieces of software, reiterating his bullish stance on Microsoft's prospects.
Buy recommendation on Microsoft reiterated
Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss made his pronouncements on April Fool's Day, but they weren't meant to make anyone look foolish. The analyst stood by his overweight (buy, in other words) rating on Microsoft at a price target of $465 per share. That's roughly 9.5% higher than the shares' current level.
Weiss felt compelled to write an update on Microsoft because there was some potential stock price-moving news about the monster tech company. It said on Monday that it will sell its Teams messaging and conferencing program separately from its popular Office productivity suite worldwide.
The announcement comes six months after it enacted this unbundling on the European market.
This was Microsoft's apparent move to head off an investigation on the packaging of the two by the European Commission -- the executive arm of the European Union (EU) that wields certain regulatory powers. The Commission was concerned that, if sold together, the bundled programs would stifle competition (Teams is similar in functionality and overall look to Salesforce's popular Slack program).
Microsoft has its fingers in many tech pies
In Weiss's view, the unbundling will result in "no meaningful change," to Microsoft's Office business and, hence, it will not affect the company's overall trajectory.
I buy this argument, and I think the analyst is actually being conservative with his price target. Microsoft remains a mighty force in the office software space and is strong in numerous other niches, including cloud computing and -- thanks to its sizable investments into ChatGPT developer OpenAI -- artificial intelligence (AI). Despite its sprawl and its age, Microsoft has plenty of growth and much profitability ahead of it.
