Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) stock jumped to an all-time high after Citi bestowed it a Street-high price target of $378 per share. The firm called the tech titan the "best" in megacap software ahead of its earnings report next week.
"It’s a staple within your portfolio, and you need to have it," Blue Line Capital founder and President Bill Baruch told the media.
"At the end of the day, it’s a stock that continues to have a different story that powers it to a new level," he added, pointing to the company’s recent information technology spending and other fundamental characteristics.
Baruch also called attention to Microsoft’s history of reporting strong earnings, highlighting its "earnings growth at a 40% clip for the last several years, year over year."
One expert pointed out that although its cloud business had been doing well pre-COVID, the pandemic actually supercharged its growth.
This is good for Microsoft as "about a third of their revenues are coming out of the cloud business," she said. "Another third is coming from gaming as well, which has also done really well."
On top of this, she expected the tech titan to benefit from the post-pandemic workplace due to increased demand for the company’s products.
"The outlook for the hybrid work environment, continued focus on business continuity — all of those feed into Microsoft’s core business," she said.
MSFT shares galloped $2.52 to $288.66 early Friday.
