Investing.com -- Wedbush analysts said they feel “more bullish” on Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) stock despite the noise that emerged following the tech giant’s latest earnings report.
The company reported first-quarter results above market expectations, with Azure’s year-over-year constant currency growth at 34%, beating forecasts by 100 basis points.
AI-driven growth played a substantial role, contributing a 12% boost compared to 8% in the previous quarter, highlighting the strong AI monetization trends benefiting Microsoft’s core cloud business.
Despite these figures, shares fell more than 3% in premarket trading Thursday as the December quarter guidance for Azure’s constant currency growth came in at 31%-32%, lower than what some bullish investors had anticipated.
Commenting on this, Wedbush analysts led by Dan Ives said they "disagree with this initial take."
They note that the new Azure reporting standards “have moved Street numbers all around and a slight deceleration is totally expected by many investors with some supply constraints and reacceleration in 2H25 and we would be strong buyers of MSFT on any weakness this morning.”
The investment firm reiterated an Outperform rating on Microsoft stock with a price target of $550.
Wedbush highlights that headline numbers for December were strong, especially in the core Intelligent Cloud segment. Any softness stemmed from PC demand, which Ives and his team see as “background noise” within the broader cloud and AI growth narrative.
“We come away from this quarter more bullish (not less) after seeing this AI growth and Copilot monetization play out in real time for Microsoft. The bears will try to split hairs on any number but ultimately this is a tech stalwart in major growth mode,” analysts continued.
Brett Iversen, Microsoft’s VP of Investor Relations, confirmed that the company won't be able to address its AI capacity limitations until the second half of its fiscal year. This may be another factor contributing to today's negative premarket price action.