Guggenheim sees plenty of reasons ahead to be bullish on Microsoft . The investment bank upgraded shares of the tech titan and “Magnificent Seven” stock to a buy rating from neutral. Analyst John DiFucci also instated a price target of $586 per share. Shares of Microsoft have added 24% this year. DiFucci’s new target offers an upside of 12% from the stock’s Friday closing price of $523.61. MSFT YTD mountain MSFT YTD chart DiFucci warned that Microsoft’s valuation is not cheap at its current levels, and may never trade at a level considered to be cheap. But he justified this by citing the company’s strong business, adding that “boring is beautiful” when it comes to Windows. “It’s seen as a relatively low-risk stock, which we think is rooted in the superb management of two near monopolies coupled with a visionary leader that has made a difference,” DiFucci wrote. “The summary here is that the highly profitable Windows business is likely grossly underestimated going forward, which should help cushion any bottom-line pressure from increased lower margin Azure business.” The analyst pointed to Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, as an obvious artificial intelligence beneficiary. He specifically applauded the recurring nature of its consumption model — which he believes acts similarly to a subscription service — as a revenue growth driver going forward. But DiFucci sees Microsoft 365, the company’s bundle of productivity software, as a less obvious AI beneficiary. “We believe Microsoft will be a unique applications vendor that can directly monetize AI by charging more on top on its monopoly position in Office,” DiFucci wrote. “While we disagreed with the overly optimistic benefits anticipated for Copilot by many in the investment community soon after its launch, we always believed M365 would become a material opportunity to add incremental revenue and profit on top of Microsoft’s stranglehold on the Productivity Suite market.” The analyst added that Microsoft’s “margin-rich businesses,” such as Windows and Microsoft 365, should continue to help the company hedge against any headwinds in the current investment cycle. ( Learn the best 2026 strategies from inside the NYSE with Josh Brown and others at CNBC PRO Live. Tickets and info here . )
