Microsoft ‘best house’ in ‘deteriorating neighborhood,’ says JPMorgan

JPMorgan maintains an Overweight rating on Microsoft with a $305 price target after attending the company’s inaugural "Secure Event." While the shares "may feel a bit rudderless amidst a broad wave of cloud optimizations weighing on Azure growth," the company is "planting the longer-term seeds for success" across Security, Teams, Power Apps and now the forward-looking ChatGPT investments, the analyst tells investors in a research note. In addition, favorable currency movement may create a partial sales offset while headcount reductions show a commitment to efficiency, contends the firm. It sees Microsoft as the "best house in a temporarily deteriorating neighborhood," saying the fundamental trends of modernization and automation remain intact long-term.