Microsoft price target lowered to $280 from $290 at Wedbush

Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives lowered the price target on Microsoft to $280 from $290 and keeps an Outperform rating on the shares following quarterly results. Azure growth of 38% came in ahead of Street estimates and were much better than whisper expectations with persistent black clouds over the Microsoft story the past few months, the firm notes. Over the conference Call, Nadella talked about a softening Azure demand environment starting in the month of December with caution seen by enterprise customers heading into 2023. Wedbush believes this is no surprise to the Street and points out that Microsoft guided to Azure growth in the 30% range quarter, which was above the key 30% bull/bear threshold that many investors were laser focused on heading into the print.