Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss has maintained their bullish stance on MSFT stock, giving a Buy rating on January 12.
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Keith Weiss has given his Buy rating due to a combination of factors tied to Microsoft’s dominant position in cloud and generative AI, as evidenced by the 4Q25 CIO survey. Chief Information Officers anticipate slightly stronger software budget growth into 2026, and within that improving environment, they expect Microsoft’s spending growth with their organizations to outpace overall software growth. Azure continues to stand out as the preferred public cloud platform, with more than half of application workloads already hosted there and CIOs indicating this leadership should persist over the next several years. In addition, a very high proportion of CIOs plan to use Microsoft’s generative AI offerings over the coming year, underscoring strong demand for Azure OpenAI Services, GitHub Copilot, and broader AI capabilities.
Weiss also points to robust adoption trends in Microsoft 365 and its premium E5 tier, alongside rising penetration for M365 Copilot, as indicators of durable upsell and cross-sell opportunities across the installed base. These survey results suggest Microsoft is poised to capture an outsized share of incremental AI and IT budget growth as cloud migration and AI deployment accelerate. Importantly, Weiss believes this favorable positioning and growth potential are not fully reflected in the current valuation metrics, such as the company’s GAAP P/E and PEG ratios. Taken together, these factors support his view that Microsoft’s risk‑reward profile remains attractive, justifying a Buy recommendation.
Weiss covers the Technology sector, focusing on stocks such as Microsoft, Adobe, and Salesforce. According to TipRanks, Weiss has an average return of 11.7% and a 61.94% success rate on recommended stocks.
In another report released on January 12, Barclays also maintained a Buy rating on the stock with a $610.00 price target.