Displaying items by tag: microsoft

(Seattle)

For the last week, Microsoft has been in a delicate dance to try to acquire the hugely popular social media app TikTok. President Trump has been adamant that it needs to be bought by US interests or he may ban the app. Last week, Microsoft said it was trying to acquire the company, but then swiftly abandoned the efforts because Trump said he would block the deal. Now, Microsoft says that Satya Nadella and Trump have spoken and gotten on the same page and that the deal is back on. Wedbush thinks the deal could be transformational for Microsoft as it would put them in direct competition with Facebook, Alphabet etc, and give them a huge social media prize while those competitors remain mired in major regulatory scrutiny.

FINSUM: TikTok already has 100 million users in the US. We think if this goes through it could end up being a major boost to Microsoft. Perhaps not unlike Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram.

(San Francisco)

The market is in a brutal position, everyone knows that. Peak losses hit 19% yesterday, just a hair off a bear market. The reality, though, is that some sectors are thoroughly in a bear market, including the biggest growth driver of them all—tech. The S&P info tech sector is down 20%, while Microsoft is down 20% and Apple 19%. Amazon and Facebook are both down 17%. IBM, Cisco, and older-guard tech companies are getting slaughtered down to the 25%+ range.

FINSUM: Some of these are smart to stay away from, but others could be good buying opportunities. For instance, social media companies are more exposed to consumer spending declines (and resultant advertising declines) that B2B tech companies offering cloud and other software infrastructure that is hard to cut from budgets.

(New York)

Standard Life analyst Andrew Milligan made two great calls this time last year. He picked Microsoft and Equinix as two breakthrough stocks for 2019. They rose 55% and 64% respectively so far this year. Now he has his 2020 picks ready. Milligan says to take a look at Visa, Mastercard, and 5G companies like Marvell technology. He also still likes Microsoft, for what that is worth.

FINSUM: We like the call on 5G. The new tech has sort of been in the background of mainstream investing consciousness, but next year could be when it explodes to the forefront.

(New York)

If it seems like value investing is dead, it is because it almost is. Even major adherents have moved away from the practice as growth stocks have greatly outperformed value stocks for so long. The growth sector has been led by large tech companies for the last several years, and many are wondering whether the gains can keep going. The answer, according to Credit Suisse, is “yes”. The bank has put out a piece reminding investors that in late stage bull markets growth stocks can often hit P/E multiples of 45-60x. The sector is currently only trading at 28x earnings. Credit Suisse singled out Microsoft and Raytheon as good cheap picks.

FINSUM: The optimism has been building in markets, so it would not be far-fetched to think a big late cycle run could be in the cards for growth stocks.

(Seattle)

Microsoft might have a big edge that no one is giving them credit for. That edge? It is the fact that money is pouring into ESG funds, and Microsoft is largely included in that category. Almost all of the top five ESG ETFs are overweight Microsoft, and as ESG continues to draw in more and more capital, that will become an increasingly important advantage for MSFT and other big tech names as well. In fact, many large tech companies are seen as ESG-friendly, so this is a hidden tailwind for several companies, including Google.

FINSUM: ESG ETFs are only going to grow in strength, so this is a nice little bit of momentum that will be pushing tech names higher.