Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss said Microsoft's (MSFT) Public Cloud offering is differentiated from those of cloud giants Amazon (AMZN) and Google (GOOGL) as it spans from core Infrastructure Services to Platform-as-a-Service capabilities and up the stack to the application layer.
This combination of Public Cloud assets paired with Microsoft's large existing customer base, developer base, expansive distribution channel, and strong on-premise technology will likely drive continuing share gains over the next three years, contends Weiss. The analyst, who thinks Microsoft looks poised to maintain a dominant position in a public cloud market, also now forecasts improving gross and operating margins for the company over the next three years.
Given all of this, Weiss called Microsoft his top pick, increased his price target on the shares to $130 from $110, and noted that he sees the company having a path to $50B in EBIT and a $1 trillion market cap.
