Macquarie upgrades Microsoft to Outperform on ‘ground-breaking’ investment

Macquarie analyst Sarah Hindlian-Bowler upgraded Microsoft (MSFT) to Outperform from Neutral with a price target of $325, up from $260. The company reported a better than expected fiscal Q3 as Azure "fared well," the analyst tells investors in a research note. The firm saw a milder deceleration in Azure than many were expecting on macro softness, and highlights the company’s "ground-breaking" investment into OpenAI. It believes Microsoft will continue to outperform thanks to growth, earnings, new business opportunities with generative artifices intelligence, and what it views as a growing likelihood of the Activision Blizzard (ATVI) acquisition closing