Analysts are getting even more bullish on Microsoft's A.I. prospects after latest earnings report

Published Wed, Apr 26 20237:42 AM EDTUpdated Wed, Apr 26 20237:57 AM EDT

Microsoft's big swings on artificial intelligence are paying off, and analysts are even more bullish on the tech giant. The company reported Tuesday quarterly earnings and revenue that beat analyst expectations. Finance chief Amy Hood also said Microsoft sees revenue of $54.85 billion to $55.85 billion for the fiscal fourth quarter. The middle of that range tops a Refinitiv forecast of $54.84 billion. The results follow a stellar year for artificial intelligence on the success of ChatGPT from OpenAI, which received a sizeable investment from Microsoft. The success of the AI-powered chatbot has pushed tech companies such as Google and chip giant Nvidia to delve further into AI innovation. Microsoft shares jumped 7% on those results. MSFT 1D mountain Microsoft jump on earnings report. Analysts were quick to praise Microsoft after those results. "We believe Microsoft is one of the most compelling investment opportunities in the technology industry and across sectors," Goldman Sachs analyst Kash Rangan wrote Tuesday. "With a strong presence across all layers of the cloud stack, including applications, platforms, and infrastructure, Microsoft is well positioned, in our view, to capitalize on a number of long-term secular trends, including public cloud and SaaS adoption, digital transformation, generative AI/AI/ML, BI/analytics, and DevOps (amongst others)." Rangan has a buy rating on Microsoft and a price target of $335, implying upside of 21.6%. Wells Fargo's Michael Turrin highlighted the better-than-expected growth seen in Azure, as well as the company's commitment to continue investing in AI. "Azure growth was ahead of expectations with MSFT showing ability to protect margin/EPS in a tough backdrop," Turrin said, who rates the stock as overweight. He also hiked his price target to $345 from $320, pointing to a 25.2% potential gain. Bank of America analyst Brad Sills also pointed toward growth in Azure while noting that the "early traction in AI is encouraging." "AI/ML workloads added 1% of Azure growth in Q4 & thousands of paid customers are already running AI-powered Teams since launching 2 months ago," wrote Sills, who has a buy rating on Microsoft and raised his price target to $340 from $320. The new target implies upside of 23.4%. Sills added he believes that "Microsoft is well positioned to generate sustained low double digit growth in the coming 3-5 years, led by continued adoption of Azure cloud infrastructure platform, cloud based Office 365 productivity suite and more profitable Games and Game Pass revenue in Xbox." Meanwhile, BMO Capital Markets analyst Keith Bachman upgraded Microsoft to outperform, noting he thinks the mutual relationship between Azure and OpenAI will help Microsoft add to revenue, and thinks "the durable growth opportunities warrant a premium valuation" on the stock. Keith Weiss of Morgan Stanley also reiterated an overweight rating on the stock, and hiked his price target to $335 per share from $307. "Amidst a difficult spending environment, Microsoft's differentiated positioning in Public Cloud and Generative AI, along with a unique ability to deliver consolidated solutions, drives shares gains and out-performance against street expectations," Weiss wrote. — CNBC's Michael Bloom contributed to this report.