While most might be upset about tech giant Microsoft (MSFT) and its plan to turn Teams into a coffee-badging tattling machine, there is no doubt that Teams is displaying its value in several sectors, including some you may not expect. In fact, it turns out that Teams is proving a winner in the transportation sector, and with travel starting to come back, it could be just the time to look into adding this system. Investors were pleased, and Microsoft shares ticked up fractionally in Tuesday afternoon’s trading.
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With a Deloitte study projecting another 7% rise in leisure travel this year, and word out of the airports suggesting record numbers of travelers going through TSA checkpoints during the recent Thanksgiving weekend, it seems likely that travel will be on the rise this year. This means more flights to coordinate and more of their various components needing that same coordination.
Enter Teams, which does a fine job of separating tasks and allowing for rapid reporting on the status of said tasks. With travel now representing a series of “…intricate and interdependent” tasks, being able to have an at-a-glance platform for tracking these tasks becomes vital knowledge for those who handle scheduling and expediting. Using Teams as a “single digital cockpit,” therefore, becomes a valuable component of operations, and lets Microsoft expand into a field it may not have had much impact in previously.
New Leak on Xbox
Meanwhile, back on the Thanksgiving holiday, we took a look at the next Xbox, and what a game-changer it could represent for Microsoft. A new leak emerged that basically called the next Xbox “a more premium Steam Machine with higher pricing and specs.”
You will likely remember we referenced the Steam Machine in that Thanksgiving discussion, and posed a serious question about Microsoft’s future. This is particularly the case if the Steam Machine makes it to market first, which reports suggest it likely will. While Microsoft will have a competitive advantage in the improved specs, the Steam Machine will have first-mover advantage and, from the sounds of it, also a price advantage as well. That is not to be underestimated given current market conditions.
Is Microsoft a Buy, Hold or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on MSFT stock based on 33 Buys and two Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 12.88% rally in its share price over the past year, the average MSFT price target of $629.98 per share implies 28.53% upside potential.
