Microsoft, once again the world's most valuable company, saw its shares notch an all-time high on Monday before retreating amid general weakness in tech stocks. But Microsoft stock remained in the buy zone of its recent breakout.
In morning trades on the stock market today, Microsoft stock hit a record high of 452.75. But the stock slipped in afternoon trading, ending the day down 0.5% to 447.67.
The Redmond, Wash.-based company has been a leader in generative artificial intelligence technology. That positioning in the AI trend has boosted its value.
Microsoft stock currently has a market capitalization of $3.33 trillion. That puts it ahead of Apple at $3.19 trillion and Nvidia at $2.91 trillion. The three companies have each held the title of the most valuable company in recent weeks during a turbulent market.
Microsoft stock is in the 5% buy zone of its May 21 breakout from a flat base at a buy point of 430.82, according to IBD MarketSurge charts. It had fallen out of the buy zone in late May and early June but found support at its 50-day moving average line.
Microsoft Stock Analysts Keep Buy Ratings
In a client note last week, William Blair analyst Jason Ader reiterated his outperform rating on Microsoft stock. Ader spoke highly of the company's Microsoft Fabric product.
"In the face of a rapidly evolving data analytics/AI market, Microsoft Fabric represents a highly integrated and cohesive SaaS (software-as-a-service) -based data analytics platform," Ader said. Microsoft Fabric reached general availability in November 2023.
He added, "Microsoft Fabric has the potential to shake up the competitive landscape in data analytics by streamlining tool sprawl, reducing workflow inefficiencies, enabling the connection and curation of data in a unified logical data lake, and embedding GenAI techniques and user interfaces across the platform."
Elsewhere on Wall Street last week, Jefferies analyst Brent Thill maintained his buy rating on Microsoft stock with a price target of 550.
The upcoming Copilot+ personal computers should provide "a modest tailwind" for Microsoft, Thill said. Copilot+ PCs are billed as AI PCs.
Microsoft is building its own Copilot+ PCs under its Surface notebook brand. But other such PCs are coming from hardware partners Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung.
Follow Patrick Seitz on X, formerly Twitter, at @IBD_PSeitz for more stories on consumer technology, software and semiconductor stocks.
