Microsoft CorpMSFTTOP PICKApr 01, 2026Stock price when the opinion was issued
As of Sep 04, 2026. Market Open.
Thinks this name, as well as a lot of the big tech names (perhaps with the exception of GOOG), will go sideways for the next several years. Highs of $500-550 are what we'll get. He loved it in the last 6 months. Now he's out. Thinks you'll get a chance to buy again at $400 or below.
Likes it at 20-25x PE, but not at 30-35x. It's that simple. Too expensive for what it's likely to deliver.
(Note the short timeframe.) Market's been hating these companies due to uncertainty about capital spending. Revenues are accelerating, yet market's ignoring that. Continues to buy more. FCF should become much higher in late 2028. Topline is growing faster than expenditures, and will overtake them at some point.
Since reporting last week, they've rallied almost 130 points. MSFT is at the epicenter of the software (SAAS) socks and ultimately is where you'll make money as these models as these models commoditize. MSFT said, this capex spending is here to stay, but software isn't going away. She didn't sell it before earnings (it had been lagging all year), because she firmly believed in the CEO who did a great job of reading the room, of not doing what Google's doing. They said they will have free cash flow and won't go to the debt market (MSFT and JNJ are the only triple-A companies). Cloud revenue beat and guided upward. Still gotta see what they're spending on capex, but they're monetizing cloud. People are looking at this in a new light as it is re-rated.
Was the most impressive stock this quarter. He was pounding the table on it before the quarter. It's not a software stock, but a utility. Everyone uses their products every day. MSFT has Co-Pilot, LinkedIn, Word, Teams and more. Operating margins are huge, still robust. Balance sheet is solid. Their RPO is north of 650 billion. Great managers. But the stock has run up a lot so mind the gap with the valuation.
The street isn't impressed with this tech giant's AI offering, and shares have been punished 23.5% so far this year and lost all its gains in the past 12 months. Are we talking about Alphabet a year ago? No, it's Microsoft today. MSFT is also saddled by the SaaSpoclypse, now slowly fading. Investors are looking past the AI threat to see a company still strong in cloud with Azure's expanding revenues, up 31% in the past year and expected to rise another 40% this year. MSFT is also sitting on a mountain of cash, and continues to buyback shares and sell software subscriptions.