It was another upbeat week for stocks as back-to-back gains on Thursday and Friday more than made up for Wednesday’s Federal Reserve-driven selloff . Wall Street analysts had a lot to say about our portfolio names as Big Tech earnings dominated the action. Here are five big calls of the week and our Club takes, too. 1. Microsoft Wall Street’s call: Barclays raised Microsoft’s price target to $475 per share from $421 after the software and cloud giant’s earnings release after the closing bell Tuesday. That implies a 17.6% upside from Friday’s opening price. The analysts cited Microsoft’s artificial intelligence prospects as a tailwind. A great quarter doesn’t always initially generate a positive move. Microsoft shares fell 2.7% on Wednesday but finished the week strong at another closing record high. MSFT YTD mountain Microsoft (MSFT) year-to-date performance “We can see that AI is really starting to impact numbers positively for MSFT. A 6% growth benefit to Azure in Q2 is double compared to Q1, and is helping to offset underlying Azure growth that has not rebounded yet,” analysts, who have a buy-rating on the stock, wrote in a Wednesday note. “With more benefits from Copilot still to come plus a potential recovery, MSFT remains an exciting story.” The Club’s take: Microsoft’s AI prospects are a large part of our investment thesis. This week’s earnings highlighted the power of AI, as well as the strength in its cloud computing unit, Azure. We’re upbeat on long-term monetization opportunities and recurring revenue streams from the company’s generative AI tool, Copilot — an add-on that can help users navigate the Office 365 suite. We increased our price target to $450 from $400. 2. Alphabet Wall Street’s call: Goldman Sachs raised Alphabet’s 12-month price target to $171 per share from $164 after earnings. That reflects a 21.3% premium to Friday’s opening bell. Goldman maintained its buy rating. Alphabet shares sank 7.5% on Wednesday, the day after the late…
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