Microsoft set for “tidal wave of AI monetization” – analyst says

Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) coffers are set to benefit from a “tidal wave” of AI monetization, generated by its Copilot and Azure businesses, that’s according to analysts at West Coast stockbroker Wedbush.

Wedbush today repeated an ‘outperform’ rating and lifted its price target by 10% to $550 per share – which sees some 23% upside to Microsoft’s current price of around $447.

“We have seen deal conversions for broader enterprise-scale AI deployments "accelerating" in the field as the AI Revolution takes,” Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives said in a note.

According to Ives, Microsoft’s ‘true inflection point’ will come next year, and, importantly, the market is not keeping pace with events in AI.

“We believe the stock still has yet to price in what we view as the next wave of cloud and AI growth coming to the Redmond story,” he said.

“Over the last few weeks in our numerous conversations with Microsoft customers, partners, and field checks it has become crystal clear to us that the monetization opportunities around deploying AI and ChatGPT in the cloud is a transformational opportunity across the industry with Redmond in the drivers seat.”

Wedbush reckons it is “9pm in the AI party” which it sees going on “til 4am”.

Spending on AI at enterprise and consumer level is only just starting to take hold, the broker added.

In New York, Microsoft stock was up $4.88 or 1.1% changing hands at $447.68.