According to Goldman Sachs, Microsoft could rise as artificial intelligence appears to be pushing up, not pushing up, the value of the Magnificent Seven stocks. The investment bank has a buy rating on Microsoft and a $600 price target, suggesting an upside of nearly 61% from Thursday’s closing price. “The pace of slowdown[in Microsoft 365]is already slowing, Copilot’s data points are improving, and we believe adoption[of the company’s AI-enabled high-end enterprise license tier]will begin to move significantly within the next nine months,” Goldman Sachs analyst Gabriela Borges said in a client note on Monday. MSFT YTD Mountain Microsoft stock year-to-date performance Microsoft fell 23% in the three months ended March 31, its worst quarterly results since 2008. The company’s stock is also the worst laggard among the Mag 7 in 2026, significantly lagging the S&P 500’s year-to-date decline of 3.5%. The company’s decline comes as investors continue to wring their hands over the potential for AI tools like Claude Cowork to overtake Microsoft 365, which has been Microsoft’s main revenue driver. Most recently, we aimed to strengthen our revenue base from productivity software by promoting Microsoft 365 Copilot AI to our customers. However, as of the end of March, only 3% of commercial Office customers had licensed AI add-ons. Nevertheless, Goldman Sachs expects AI tools to become an increasingly integral part of Microsoft’s product suite over the next nine months or so. “We continue to see Microsoft as best positioned in our scope to compound the AI-driven product cycle…from leadership in AI computing to Copilot and agent orchestration at the platform and application layers,” Borges wrote. The analyst also noted that despite “the perception that Copilot’s capabilities lag behind other AI tools,” the risk of AI disintermediation is “greater than is already priced in.” Goldman Sachs’ call echoes the consensus on the street. According to LSEG, 55 of the 60 analysts covering Microsoft rate the stock as a buy or strong buy.
