Microsoft price target raised to $480 from $450 at Mizuho

Mizuho raised the firm’s price target on Microsoft to $480 from $450 and keeps an Outperform rating on the shares as part of a Q2 earnings preview for the large-cap software group. The firm says its Q2 checks were “fairly healthy” overall, and better than expected. While net new logos remain sluggish and customers remain deliberate with their purchasing decisions, the checks indicate that cloud workloads continue to progress, large optimizations appear to be behind us, and cybersecurity demand sounded good, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Mizuho says that while investor sentiment towards the software sector “remains quite negative,” its view is “directionally more favorable than that.”