Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has some big plans to come. For gaming, for artificial intelligence, and for several other fields as well. But all those plans weren’t enough to save Microsoft shares from a fractional loss in Monday afternoon’s trading session.
One of the biggest such plans was when Microsoft put some fresh investment in an AI startup. Not OpenAI, either, but rather Mistral, roughly the French equivalent. The investment will not only give Mistral extra capacity to produce, but also a target for that produce, as Mistral’s developed large language models will be made available through Microsoft Azure. Further, Mistral’s upcoming conversational assistant, dubbed “Le Chat,” will be brought out through Microsoft as well. This comes at a time when Microsoft is already under fire for its AI investment, as EU antitrust regulators take aim over its OpenAI sponsorship.
But All Is Not Well
Several other developments, however, aren’t so optimistic. Recently, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk took Microsoft to task over signup procedures. While Musk was attempting to sign up with a local account rather than a Microsoft account, issues of inadvertently connecting to a local Wi-Fi access point made the process unusually difficult. That’s a high-profile pan to face down. Further, Microsoft’s plan to roll out new Xbox hardware is proceeding apace. However, those who hoped that the old days of game rentals could make a comeback will be disappointed; the next Xbox hardware will be digital only. Worse yet, the console’s design also drew its share of detractors, including one who referred to it as the “X Cylinder Series X.”
What is Microsoft’s Target Price?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on MSFT stock based on 33 Buys, one Hold and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 64.98% rally in its share price over the past year, the average MSFT price target of $469.58 per share implies 14.76% upside potential.
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