11 Best Stocks You’ll Wish You Bought Sooner

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1. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Price Return Over 3 Years: 92.2%

Return On Equity: 40.7%

Potential Upside: 31.9%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 312

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is among the best stocks you’ll wish you bought sooner. On December 5, Barclays maintained its Overweight rating and a $625 price target on Microsoft following the company’s announcement of upcoming price increases for its Office and Microsoft 365 commercial subscriptions.

These changes, effective on July 1, 2026, mark Microsoft’s second major subscription price adjustment since the original launch of Office 365 in 2011. Before this, a price increase was implemented in 2022.

In its December 4 announcement, management attributed the price increases to the significant expansion of product capabilities and stated:

“We are continuously investing and innovating our platform for the future. In the last year, we released more than 1,100 features across Microsoft 365, Security, Copilot, and SharePoint.” They further stated, “Collectively, these features have increased the value of our suites across security, productivity, and management. We’re excited about what’s next—and will continue investing in ways to build a more secure, productive, and AI-powered future.”

Within the MS 365 suite, the Microsoft 365 F1 plan will see the most significant price increase at 33% (from $2.25 to $3), an area Barclays highlights as benefiting from strong net seat expansion trends. According to Barclays, the price increase reflects Microsoft Corporation’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) ability to steadily monetize its AI-driven product leadership, backed by loyal enterprise customers.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) develops and sells a wide range of software, cloud services, devices, and business solutions, serving both individual users and enterprise customers worldwide.

While we acknowledge the potential of MSFT to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than MSFT and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: Cathie Wood’s Stock Portfolio: Top 10 Stocks to Buy and 30 Most Fantastic Stocks Every Investor Should Pay Attention To.

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