Enterprise software juggernaut Microsoft, like most tech stocks, has gotten off to a nice start in the final month of 2024. On Friday, while the gain was mild, Microsoft stock still advanced for a sixth straight session. And on Monday, the 0.5% gain was in fact impressive, given that the Nasdaq composite cooled off after three up weeks in a row.
After cooling off Tuesday, falling a mild 0.6%, shares resumed their winning ways and rose 1.3% to 448.99.
Back in November, Microsoft stock handled reports of a potential government investigation into the company's cloud computing business with strength. Last month, shares rallied more than 4%, compared with a 5.7% lift by the S&P 500 and 6.2% gain by the Nasdaq composite.
Microsoft stock has rallied as much as 24.5% since Jan. 1. It began the year at 376.04. Year to date, the current rise of 19.4% is certainly tame compared with the S&P 500's 27.6% gain, excluding dividends.
Yet, have you seen this positive change lately? Microsoft's relative strength line is no longer trending lower. The sharp ascent in the RS line since Dec. 2 means it's now outperforming the S&P 500. You'd prefer to see a stock's RS line to rise, not fall. The very best stocks are able to rise more quickly during a confirmed market uptrend.
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Wielding a $3.33 trillion market cap, MSFT has now expanded its gain from its 2022 bear market low of 213.43 to more than 102%.
So, is Microsoft stock, affectionately nicknamed by some investors as Mr. Softy, a buy now? Or, is it a sell?
This story examines the fundamental, technical and institutional sponsorship metrics of the Redmond, Wash., firm and whether it makes sense right now for individual investors to deploy their capital.
For the latest IBD take on Microsoft action, please check out this December update.
Microsoft Stock Sours On Q1 Numbers
After the Oct. 30 close, the member of the Magnificent Seven megacap growth stocks reported earnings in the September-ended quarter of $3.30 a share, up 10% vs. a year earlier and 20 cents above the FactSet consensus view. Sales hit $65.6 billion, rising 16% and surpassing every analyst's forecast tracked by Yahoo Finance.
Revenue in its server products and cloud computing services businesses jumped 23% vs. a year ago. That's definitely healthy, even though year-over-year growth in that unit has slowed over recent years. Meanwhile, revenue in its intelligent cloud unit rose 20% to $24.1 billion.
The Microsoft 365 commercial products unit saw 13% revenue growth; sales in the consumer products area of Microsoft 365 increased 5%.
Please read this tech story for more details on the quarterly report.
CEO's Vision
The company has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI for its ChatGPT AI platform. "This next generation of AI will reshape every software category and every business, including our own," CEO Satya Nadella stated in the company's 2023 annual report. "Forty-eight years after its founding, Microsoft remains a consequential company because time and time again — from PC/Server, to Web/Internet, to Cloud/Mobile — we have adapted to technological paradigm shifts."
Amid a new funding round for OpenAI, according to news reports, the company is now valued at $157 billion. OpenAI recently a launched a new web browser to compete in the internet search market.
On Sept. 17, shares rallied as much as 3% and hit a two-month high of 441.85 on news that the company is boosting its share buyback plan by up to $60 billion. That's roughly 1.8% of the company's stock market value of $3.23 trillion. A day later on Sept. 18, Microsoft announced it is teaming up with money management titan BlackRock and MGX, a venture fund based in Abu Dhabi, UAE, to invest up to $30 billion in AI infrastructure, including datacenters and energy generation.
Microsoft stock began to decline on Sept. 18, following the Federal Reserve's key decision to cut interest rates by half a point. Shares also experienced selling pressure after an Oppenheimer research analyst reduced his forecast for Microsoft's Azure cloud computing revenue for the fiscal year ending in June 2025.
Microsoft Stock Today
Microsoft stock has risen nicely above a key technical level, the 50-day moving average. Nonetheless, shares are not ready for a new breakout to all-time highs, which would make every investor owning Microsoft stock happy. But clearly a new set-up has emerged.
Currently trading near 449, the Redmond, Wash., firm now trades 4% off its peak of 468.35.
Currently, Microsoft stock has seen its Accumulation/Distribution Rating improve from a dull C to an encouraging B-. A C rating indicates neutral activity among fund managers. An A or B rating highlights net institutional buying over the past 13 weeks of trading. So, watch to see if the Accumulation rating in Microsoft stock keeps rising in the coming days.
Continue checking MSFT's Accumulation grade via a stock quote at Investors.com.
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Long-Term Leader
The member of IBD's Long-Term Leaders resides inside the pantheon of the greatest stock market winners in U.S. history. Not long after its IPO in March 1986, MSFT demonstrated true leadership on an initial breakout from a four-month base. Microsoft stock has shown leadership — and enriched investors by rising to new highs — in multiple bull markets since then.
Without question, the company has done a spectacular job of not only maintaining a high level of reliability and trust in its brand. Management has found new markets and industries in which to grow at a rapid clip. Company financials back up the story.
The company remains a principal investment choice in the themes of artificial intelligence, enterprise software, digital hardware and cloud computing. It has gained 860% since the end of July 2014. The S&P 500 has rallied 189%.
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Big Earnings Boost Microsoft Stock
In fiscal 2018, Microsoft scored a profit of $3.88 a share. Six years later, profit totaled $11.80 a share, up 204% over that time frame. Over the past four quarters, Microsoft's earnings per share on average rose 23.5% vs. year-ago levels. Simply incredible for a company with trailing 12-month sales topping $245 billion.
Sales have moved at a slower clip than earnings. But growth has remained steady, up 8%, 13%, 18% and 17% in the past four quarters ahead of Wednesday's news. Gross margin edged back above 70% in the March-ended fiscal third quarter.
IBD Stock Checkup recently gave MSFT an Earnings Per Share Rating of 90.
In fiscal 2023, the company posted an impressive 37% return on equity (ROE), a measure of profit-generating efficiency. Its long-term debt to shareholders equity was reasonably low at 20%. Big stock market winners, such as Microsoft stock, tend to post high ROEs before they stage big price runs. Hence, MSFT also gets a top-drawer A grade for IBD's SMR Rating (Sales + Margins + ROE).
Please see this Investor's Corner for more on the SMR Rating.
Microsoft's IBD Composite Rating fell last week to a subpar 70; it has recently improved to a 78, according to IBD Stock Checkup. In general, the biggest stock market winners tend to show a Composite of 95 or higher at the start of their mighty runs.
The Relative Strength Rating for Microsoft stock has nose-dived to a weak 41 on a scale of 1 to 99 before rebounding to 61 lately. Back in August, the RS Rating stood at 83. A 61 RS Rating means Microsoft stock has outperformed 60% of all companies over the past 12 months. That's a much needed improvement. However, the average Relative Strength Rating among the biggest stock market winners in recent decades when they began their gigantic price runs is 87, according to IBD research.
This means numerous big winner break out to new highs and produce big profits for investors willing to make a timely buy when their Relative Strength Rating is already strong, say at 95 or higher.
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Microsoft Stock And Institutional Activity
Microsoft stock has 7.434 billion shares outstanding. One of the few companies in the trillion-dollar club, its total market value recently approached $3.5 trillion.
Mutual funds, hedge funds, insurers, pension plans, sovereign wealth funds and the like dominate the long-term movement of share prices. MSFT stock is no exception. In the third quarter of 2023, as many as 10,119 mutual funds held MSFT stock, based on MarketSurge data. That number has since grown to as high as 10,509 funds as the end of the June quarter. In Q3, the figure eased to 10,398.
To determine the right time to buy MSFT stock, always consult a stock chart. The monthly chart offers an excellent view of a stock's long-term trend. The weekly chart helps a savvy investor identify time-tested chart patterns that have repeatedly emerged among big stock market winners. Finally, the daily chart helps pinpoint an exact buy point.
During the 2022 bear market, Microsoft struggled like other growth companies. But in early November 2022, the stock bottomed out at 213.43 and began to grind higher. Three months later in February 2023, Microsoft stock attempted to break a 14-month downtrend. While it gained some ground, the attempt failed. But in March, Microsoft busted out of that downtrend in bullish form. Mr. Softy rallied 15.6% that month. Turnover climbed.
The monthly action highlighted a bullish character change in Microsoft stock.
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MSFT Stock: Weekly Chart Action
On a weekly chart, MSFT delivered a buy opportunity when it cleared 276.76, the high in the week ended Feb. 10, 2023, in enormous weekly turnover of 237 million shares. This strong move signaled unusually strong demand. Over 18 weeks, Microsoft rallied more than 32%, then dipped back into base-building phase.
A base allows a great stock to take a break as investors lock in gains. The price action becomes dull; general interest wanes. However, when institutions start getting greedy again, the stock begins to rally off lows and set up a potential breakout.
In the week ended Nov. 10, 2023, shares cleared a shallow saucer pattern with a 366.78 buy point. Shares went on to form a base-on-base pattern.
Not all breakouts succeed.
In the week ended May 24 this year, Microsoft stock poked above a 430.82 entry. Gains were minimal. On May 31, it fell 7% below the buy point, triggering the golden rule of investing: cut losses short. Two months later in July, Microsoft dove below its 10-week moving average.
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Microsoft Stock: Daily Chart Action
On Sept. 18 and 19, IBD boosted its suggested investment exposure level for active traders twice. This has implications for new positions.
Last month, Microsoft offered an aggressive entry near its 200-day moving average — drawn in black on a daily chart at Investors.com and in MarketSurge — for investors who already hold a big gain and would like to add to their positions. The 200-day moving average is rising steadily and recently climbed to 422.
This column noted in recent weeks that shares are trying to rally above the 200-day line. It makes sense to wait and see if the stock not only stabilizes but also rallies in robust fashion back above the 200-day line before possibly going long.
On Nov. 7, Microsoft accomplished just that.
Therefore, MSFT turned into a buy near 421. Given the whipsawing action lately, Microsoft stock still needs to prove it holds solid buying support at the 200-day moving average and keep rising above the technical level of support and resistance.
Amid recent gains, MSFT now trades more than 5% above the 200-day line; therefore, the stock remains slightly extended from this entry point. However, last week Microsoft also moved past an early buy point of 438.50; spot the short-term high of Oct. 30. On that day, MSFT pulled back, indicating 438.50 became a level of upside price resistance. Shares are less than 2% above this alternate entry and are thus in the 5% buy zone.
Therefore, Microsoft stock remains a buy.
Always stay wary of buying too far above the 200-day line on a price percentage basis. IBD suggests this rule: Buy within 5% of the buy point or moving average.
Meanwhile, the stock continues to build a base; that's another big reason to keep monitoring its chart action. With the right side of the base taking more shape, an early buy point at 441.85 has also emerged. In the current base, watch for a potential handle, or final shakeout of disgruntled shareholders before a potential breakout and big price run, to form.
Finally, if the nascent rebound withers and MSFT falls hard, traders need to cut losses on newly bought shares. Keeping losses at no larger than 7% remains the golden rule of investing.
Please follow Chung on X/Twitter: @saitochung and @IBD_DChung
