Brian Madden Microsoft Corp MSFT-Q TOP PICK Dec 04, 2024

Incredibly wide competitive moat. Growing quickly, especially in Azure and the cloud. Globally dominant franchise difficult to dislocate anytime soon.

Likes the stickiness to both personal and corporate clients -- once you get into the network, it's very hard to get out. Cloud business has improved significantly. If quantum computing ever comes to the forefront, MSFT is there. 

ROIC is 23% vs. WACC of 9%. This gives them lots of cashflow to pour money into the next greatest thing. R&D development is important, given how fast things are changing these days. Yield is 0.72%.

Excellent company that meets his criteria. If you made him choose one or the other today, he'd have to say META based on valuation (with the assumption that the investor would hold a position for the long run). MSFT trading ~37-38x PE, whereas META is in the mid-high 20s.

One of his top-performing stocks. He targets $514. Very well-run company. Boasts solid moats in enterprise software and operating systems, which ensures recurring revenue and customer retention. Azure Cloud remains second only to AWS. The valuation may be elevated, but MSFT is good now for selling some calls given volatility. Keep the calls pretty sure, writing calls around $490-495.

You still have to see how they will capitalize on AI, but they are in the best position to capitalize.

Hitting all-time record highs, with more upside. Still holds. His biggest exposure to technology.

Historically trades at 25x PE, but is now 37x, not cheap.

Is doing incredibly well, being the software and cloud services and gaming plays. Also, it has embraced AI strongly such as savings in call centres while increasing customer satisfaction.