Investing.com — Wedbush analysts stated they really feel “more bullish” on Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:) inventory regardless of the noise that emerged following the tech large’s newest earnings report.
The corporate reported first-quarter outcomes above market expectations, with Azure’s year-over-year fixed foreign money development at 34%, beating forecasts by 100 foundation factors.
AI-driven development performed a considerable position, contributing a 12% enhance in comparison with 8% within the earlier quarter, highlighting the sturdy AI monetization tendencies benefiting Microsoft’s core cloud enterprise.
Regardless of these figures, shares fell greater than 3% in premarket buying and selling Thursday because the December quarter steering for Azure’s fixed foreign money development got here in at 31%-32%, decrease than what some bullish buyers had anticipated.
Commenting on this, Wedbush analysts led by Dan Ives stated they disagree with this take.
They word that the brand new Azure reporting requirements “have moved Streetr numbers all around and a slight deceleration is totally expected by many investors with some supply constraints and reacceleration in 2H25 and we would be strong buyers of MSFT on any weakness this morning.”
The funding agency reiterated an Outperform ranking on Microsoft inventory with a worth goal of $550.
Wedbush highlights that headline numbers for December had been sturdy, particularly within the core Clever Cloud phase. Any softness stemmed from PC demand, which Ives and his group see as “background noise” inside the broader cloud and AI development narrative.
“We come away from this quarter more bullish (not less) after seeing this AI growth and Copilot monetization play out in real time for Microsoft. The bears will try to split hairs on any number but ultimately this is a tech stalwart in major growth mode,” analysts continued.
Brett Iversen, Microsoft’s VP of Investor Relations, confirmed that the corporate will not be capable to tackle its AI capability limitations till the second half of its fiscal yr. This can be one other issue contributing to right this moment’s damaging premarket worth motion.
