Investment Mindset: Bill Gates advises investors to "save like a pessimist, but invest like an optimist," emphasizing the importance of having a rainy day fund and considering high-yield savings accounts or Certificates of Deposit (CDs) for wealth preservation.
Real Estate Opportunities: Platforms like Arrived and Homeshares allow individuals to invest in real estate without the burdens of property management, providing access to rental properties and the U.S. home equity market with relatively low minimum investments.
Stock Market Insights: For those invested in retirement accounts, seeking advice from platforms like Moby can help simplify stock and crypto investments, offering research and insights from former hedge fund analysts.
Contingency Planning: Gates stresses the need for contingency plans to prepare for market downturns, suggesting that having a worst-case scenario strategy is crucial for managing investments during challenging times.
Wall Street analysts forecast MSFT stock price to rise over the next 12 months. According to Wall Street analysts, the average 1-year price target for MSFT is 631.98 USD with a low forecast of 500.00 USD and a high forecast of 700.00 USD. However, analyst price targets are subjective and often lag stock prices, so investors should focus on the objective reasons behind analyst rating changes, which better reflect the company's fundamentals.
35 Analyst Rating
Wall Street analysts forecast MSFT stock price to rise over the next 12 months. According to Wall Street analysts, the average 1-year price target for MSFT is 631.98 USD with a low forecast of 500.00 USD and a high forecast of 700.00 USD. However, analyst price targets are subjective and often lag stock prices, so investors should focus on the objective reasons behind analyst rating changes, which better reflect the company's fundamentals.
33 Buy
2 Hold
0 Sell
Strong Buy
Current: 459.380
Low
500.00
Averages
631.98
High
700.00
Current: 459.380
Low
500.00
Averages
631.98
High
700.00
Wells Fargo
Overweight
to
NULL
downgrade
$700 -> $665
Al Analysis
2026-01-08
Reason
Wells Fargo
Price Target
$700 -> $665
Al Analysis
2026-01-08
downgrade
Overweight
to
NULL
Reason
Wells Fargo lowered the firm's price target on Microsoft to $665 from $700 and keeps an Overweight rating on the shares. The firm believes that AI is still "the name of the 2026 game." Wells sees three key ways to play, namely infrastructure, incumbents, and innovation. While adoption will likely be uneven, secular trend will ultimately drive 2026 performance, it adds.
Northland
Outperform
maintain
$211
2026-01-06
Reason
Northland
Price Target
$211
2026-01-06
maintain
Outperform
Reason
Northland names Nebius a top pick for 2026 and reiterates an Outperform rating on the shares with a $211 price target. The firm sees the company's debt being backed by the Microsoft (MSFT) contract and visibility into where 2.5GW of power will be sourced will be key catalysts for the shares to more than double. The growing period, which is now at three months, to secure debt with respect to the $17B Microsoft contract announced in September likely has investors concerned, the analyst tells investors in a research note. However, Northland's discussions with industry participants suggest the growing period of time for Nebius to secure the debt is "100% around managing the near 0% probability of MSFT not needing the contracted capacity or exercising the right to make partial payments or receive credits as renumeration in the very low probability scenario NBIS fails to meet certain agreed upon service levels." It says violation of service levels is a very low probability.
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Freedom Capital
Hold
to
Buy
upgrade
$13,340
2025-12-23
Reason
Freedom Capital
Price Target
$13,340
2025-12-23
upgrade
Hold
to
Buy
Reason
"Game On" is The Fly's weekly recap of the stories powering up or beating down video game stocks.VIDEO GAME SPENDING:Circana analyst Mat Piscatellathe release of Activision's"Call of Duty: Black Ops 7" marked the 18th consecutive year that a "CoD" franchise release has been the best-selling game of its release month, while PS5led hardware in both unit and dollar sales for the month of November. Total projected spending across video game hardware, content and accessories fell 4% when compared to a year ago, to $5.9B, in November in the U.S. Hardware, accessory and console content declines drove the change. The average price paid for a new unit of video game hardware in the US during November 2019 was $235. In November 2025 it was $439. 3.9M units of video game hardware sold in the US in November 2019. In November 2025 it was 1.6M, Piscatella noted. PlayStation 5 was November's best-selling hardware in both units and dollars, the first time this has occurred since the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2. Nintendo Switch 2 ranked 2nd for November across both units and dollars. Other top-selling games for the month were Electronic Arts'"Battlefield 6," Take-Two's"NBA 2K26," EA's "Madden NFL 26" and "EA Sports FC 26," Nintendo's "Pokemon Legends: Z-A," and Sony's "Ghost of Yotei."OVERTIME WORK:Staff at Sony'sNaughty Dog games studio, known for the "Last of Us" and "Uncharted" franchises, are working mandatory overtime to finish a demo of their upcoming title "Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet," as the studio infamous for crunching on projects revives a now frowned-upon practice in the games industry, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier. For the past seven weeks, the developer has been pushing employees to work extra long hours to prepare for an upcoming review of the demo by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony's PlayStation business, Schreier says, citing people familiar with the situation. The game is set for release in mid-2027, the author says, citing people familiar with the schedule.BUY NINTENDO:Freedom Capital upgraded Nintendoto Buy from Hold with a 13,340 yen price target. The shares have come under significant pressure in recent weeks, declining 20% in the month of December alone driven by concerns around memory pricing, but commentary from Nintendo suggests that memory pricing concerns may be overdone and the company is still in "the early innings of the promising" Switch 2 cycle, the firm tells investors.HOGWARTS LEGACY:Warner Bros. Discoveryits 2023 video game "Hogwarts Legacy," a game based on the "Harry Potter" franchise, has sold 40M units total. The game is available on PC, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and Switch 2.Clickto check out recent Media Buzz Sentiment on Warner Bros. Discovery as measured by TipRanks.MORE VIDEO GAME NEWS:Disneydoesn'tRobloxa safe platform.A legalbetween Sonyand Tencentover the release of Tencent's game "Light of Motiram" has concludeD.
BTIG
BTIG
Buy
initiated
$1,000
2025-12-16
Reason
BTIG
BTIG
Price Target
$1,000
2025-12-16
initiated
Buy
Reason
BTIG assumed coverage of ServiceNow with a Buy rating and $1,000 price target. Two years after launching Now Assist, ServiceNow has built a robust platform for human and AI agent collaboration, featuring the AI Control Tower for management and governance, and partnering closely with Microsoft (MSFT) to power agentic AI orchestration across the entire enterprise, the analyst tells investors in a research note. In its bull case, BTIG sees ServiceNow continuing to operate above the Rule of 50, with high-teens top-line growth and mid-20% free cash flow growth, the firm added.
About MSFT
Microsoft Corporation is a technology company. The Company develops and supports software, services, devices, and solutions. The Company’s segments include Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. The Productivity and Business Processes segment consists of products and services in its portfolio of productivity, communication, and information services. This segment primarily comprises: Office Commercial, Office Consumer, LinkedIn, and Dynamics business solutions. The Intelligent Cloud segment consists of server products and cloud services, including Azure and other cloud services, SQL Server, Windows Server, Visual Studio, System Center, and related Client Access Licenses (CALs), and Nuance and GitHub; and Enterprise Services, including enterprise support services, industry solutions and Nuance professional services. The More Personal Computing segment primarily comprises Windows, Devices, Gaming, and search and news advertising.
About the author
Emily J. Thompson
Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.
