Tech giant Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is up nearly 2% in Thursday afternoon’s trading after revealing how much money its LinkedIn business generates. For those not familiar, LinkedIn is like a Facebook geared toward job seekers. It allows users to connect (generally for business purposes), post job listings, and write thought-leadership articles about business.
It boasts premium subscription services that allow users to see who’s looking at their profile and what search results they’re landing in. LinkedIn also offers more options for contacting other users. Those services alone meant $1.7 billion for Microsoft in 2023. Meanwhile, LinkedIn generated a grand total of $15 billion in 2023, with $7 billion coming from corporate recruiters buying access to hiring tools.
Pushing AI into the Office
Microsoft has made a particular push into work tools. We already know about the new version of Copilot for financial professionals that Microsoft rolled out just last week. Now, Microsoft will roll out a whole new special event, the “new era of work” event that will hit in two weeks, on March 21st. This event will call particular attention to what else Microsoft is doing with Copilot and talk about other products in both Surface and Windows that should deliver added value while at work.
What Is the Future Price of Microsoft Stock?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on MSFT stock based on 31 Buys, one Hold, and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 62.42% rally in its share price over the past year, the average MSFT price target of $469.34 per share implies 14.75% upside potential.
