Goldman Sachs increased its price target on Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) to $400.00, up from the previous target of $350.00, while maintaining a Buy rating on the stock.
The analysts’ decision to raise the price target is based on Microsoft’s recent Copilot announcements. With the launch of Microsoft 365 Copilot, which will be available to more than 380 million users at a price of $30 per month, the total addressable market (TAM) is estimated to be over $135 billion in the long term. The analysts believe that Microsoft has the potential to capture 15-30% of this market opportunity by the fiscal year 2026, assuming a launch around mid to late fiscal year 2024. The widespread adoption of Copilot is expected to be quicker compared to the migration cycles of E3/E5, given the high productivity it offers.
This analysis reinforces the belief that Microsoft Cloud, which includes Azure and Office, can sustain a growth rate of around 20% in the coming years, driven by enterprises’ increasing tendency to integrate General Artificial Intelligence (Gen-AI) services. As for Azure specifically, the analysts predict that the sequential deceleration in growth will stabilize as the impact of optimization trends levels off and Gen-AI workloads are incorporated, contributing to its expansion.