Wall Street Analyst Price Target Hike Would Give Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) $1T Market Cap

The race to be the first one trillion company by market cap is on, and one Wall Street firm points to Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) as the slow and steady winner. Morgan Stanley has raised its one-year price target for Microsoft, which would reach the trillion mark if it reaches those lofty goals.

CNBC passes along Morgan Stanley’s take on Microsoft.

Investors have been watching Amazon and Apple in the race to $1 trillion in market capitalization, but Morgan Stanley is betting on Microsoft to reach that milestone in the next 12 months thanks to cloud adoption.
“Strong positioning for ramping public cloud adoption, large distribution channels and installed customer base, and improving margins support a path to $50 billion in EBIT and a $1 trillion market cap for MSFT,” Morgan Stanley’s Keith Weiss wrote in a note to clients Monday.

The firm has raised its target price for Microsoft to $130 from $110. Apple, Amazon, and Alphabet are well ahead on the market cap valuation front at the moment, but Microsoft could surge past them all if it achieves the targets that Morgan Stanley has laid out.

Morgan Stanley expects the public cloud market to double in size to a staggering $250 billion, and the firm believes Microsoft will remain a dominant player in that market.

Microsoft Corporation shares were trading at $92.19 per share on Monday morning, up $5.01 (+5.75%). Year-to-date, MSFT has gained 8.28%, versus a -1.14% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.

MSFT currently has a StockNews.com POWR Rating of B (Buy), and is ranked #17 of 65 stocks in the Software – Application category.