Microsoft shares are trading higher on Tuesday on Wall Street, buoyed by positive comments from Wedbush Securities two days ahead of its first-quarter earnings release.

In a note published in the morning, Wedbush's star analyst Dan Ives says that the release, scheduled for Thursday evening, will enable investors to fully assess the implications of the AI revolution.

From Microsoft's point of view, we see this as a moment comparable to the launch of the iPhone, as AI is likely to change the growth trajectory that the Redmond-based group has experienced in the cloud over the past few years, and reinforce the market's confidence in this dynamic", he stresses.

Wedbush, which has an "outperform" rating and a price target of $500 on the stock, forecasts 30% growth in business for Azure, the company's cloud computing arm, over the past quarter.

According to his calculations, customer deployments of 'Co-Pilot' AI projects could generate between $25 and $30 billion in additional sales by the end of 2025.

This morning, Microsoft announced that Coca-Cola had chosen it as the preferred supplier for its cloud and AI platforms in a five-year contract valued at some $1.1 billion.

Microsoft shares, up 8% since the start of the year, continue to trade at levels close to their all-time highs, making them still the world's leading market capitalization, with a valuation of over $3,000 billion.

The stock is currently up 1.6%, among the biggest gainers on the Dow Jones, which is up 0.5%.

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