A previous version of this article incorrectly stated Microsoft’s previous closing record price. It has been corrected.
Microsoft Corp. shares rallied Thursday for a sixth consecutive day of gains and closed at a record high as investors focused more on the tech giant’s artificial-intelligence roadmap and less on the stalled $69 billion acquisition of videogame publisher Activision Blizzard Inc.
Microsoft
MSFT,
shares rallied 3.2% to close at a record $348.10, topping the previous high of $343.11 on Nov. 19, 2021, according to FactSet data.
For the year to date, Microsoft shares are up 45.2%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
which counts Microsoft as a component, is up 3.8%.
Meanwhile, the S&P 500
SPX,
has advanced 15.3% year to date, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
has gained 31.7% and the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector exchange-traded fund
IGV,
has grown 36.6%.
At the close, Microsoft accounted for a significant portion of the nearly 429-point, or 1.3%, gain by the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Thursday.
On Thursday, analysts who rate Microsoft a buy hiked their price targets on the stock, with Mizuho raising theirs to $360 from $340 and JPMorgan raising theirs to $350 from $315.
JPMorgan analyst Mark Murphy said in a note Thursday that he sees Microsoft on a fast-growing path to $10 billion in AI business alone.
“Regarding Microsoft’s monetization of AI, the company shares that one primary lever is through the tools and services customers use to build AI apps and services, such as running Azure OpenAI APIs or using the Azure infrastructure, for example,” Murphy said, referring to application programming interfaces. “Additionally, the company expects AI to be built into ‘every Microsoft Cloud solution.’”
The company has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI, the startup that launched the generative-AI ChatGPT to huge fanfare late last year.
Read from March: Bill Gates says AI is only the second revolutionary tech advancement in his lifetime
Microsoft has picked up 11 price hikes on its stock in June alone from analysts like BMO Capital Markets’ Keith Bachman, who said Microsoft is in the “early innings of its AI journey” and expects the tech to fuel 4% to 6% growth in Microsoft Office revenue.
Read: Judge temporarily blocks Microsoft’s $69 billion purchase of Activision
Of the 51 analysts who cover Microsoft, 43 have buy-grade ratings, seven have hold ratings and one has a sell rating. After 11 analysts hiked their price targets in June, the stock now has an average target price of $345.49, up from a previous $342.37.
Late Tuesday, a federal judge in San Francisco issued a temporary restraining order, which was requested by the Federal Trade Commission, blocking Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard
ATVI,
In mid-May, EU regulators approved the deal, but U.K. regulators said in April they would prohibit the deal on anticompetitive concerns.
Apple Inc.
AAPL,
shares also closed at a record Thursday, up 1.1% to $186.01. Shares of the iPhone maker have been rallying and carving out record highs since the company’s WWDC event last week.
This story originally appeared on Marketwatch
