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A previous version of this article incorrectly stated Microsoft’s previous closing record price. It has been corrected.
Microsoft Corp. shares rose Thursday for a sixth consecutive day of gains and were on track for a record closing high as investors focused more on the tech giant’s artificial-intelligence roadmap and less on the stalled $69 billion acquisition of videogame publisher Activision Blizzard Inc.
Microsoft
MSFT,
shares rallied more than 3% and were holding near their intraday high of $349.35. Shares last closed at a record $343.11 on Nov. 19, 2021, according to FactSet data.
For the year to date, Microsoft shares are up more than 44%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
which counts Microsoft as a component, is up nearly 4%.
Meanwhile, the S&P 500
SPX,
has advanced nearly 15% year to date, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
has gained 31% and the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector exchange-traded fund
IGV,
has grown 36%.
In afternoon trading, Microsoft accounted for more than 140 points of gain on the Dow Average, which was last up more than 370 points, or 1.2%, on the day.
On Thursday, analysts who rate Microsoft a buy hiked their price targets on the stock, with Mizuho raising theirs to $360 from $340 and JPMorgan raising theirs to $350 from $315.
JPMorgan analyst Mark Murphy said in a note Thursday that he sees Microsoft on a fast-growing path to $10 billion in AI business alone.
“Regarding Microsoft’s monetization of AI, the company shares that one primary lever is through the tools and services customers use to build AI apps and services, such as running Azure OpenAI APIs or using the Azure infrastructure for example,” Murphy said, referring to application programming interfaces. “Additionally, the company expects AI to be built into ‘every Microsoft Cloud solution.’”
The company has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI, the startup that launched the generative-AI ChatGPT to huge fanfare late last year.
Read from March: Bill Gates says AI is only the second revolutionary tech advancement in his lifetime
Microsoft has picked up 11 price hikes on its stock in June alone from analysts like BMO Capital Markets’ Keith Bachman, who said Microsoft is in the “early innings of its AI journey” and expects the tech to fuel 4% to 6% growth in Microsoft Office revenue.
Read: Judge temporarily blocks Microsoft’s $69 billion purchase of Activision
Of the 51 analysts who cover Microsoft, 43 have buy-grade ratings, seven have hold ratings and one has a sell rating. After 11 analysts hiked their price targets in June, the stock now has an average target price of $345.49, up from a previous $342.37.
Late Tuesday, a federal judge in San Francisco issued a temporary restraining order, which was requested by the Federal Trade Commission, blocking Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision.
In mid-May, EU regulators approved the deal, but U.K. regulators said in April they would prohibit the deal on anticompetitive concerns.
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