We recently published a list of 10 Best Long Term Tech Stocks to Buy Right Now. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) stands against other best long term tech stocks to buy right now.
As per Deloitte, amidst uncertainties and economic turbulence, the broader technology industry can see growth in 2025, courtesy of elevated IT spending, AI investments, and a strong emphasis on innovation. Some analysts expect that global IT spending is expected to grow by 9.3% in 2025, with data center and software segments anticipating to increase at double-digit rates. Notably, worldwide spending on AI is projected to increase at a CAGR of 29% from 2024 to 2028.
Spending To Go Northwards, Says S&P Global
S&P Global sees global IT spending to increase by 9% in 2025, reflecting an improvement from the low 8% area in 2024, with AI spurring massive data center spending and enterprises renewing their investments in traditional hardware. The enterprises have been entering 2025 with a transition to the cloud, and they are slowly accelerating their investments in GenAI projects. The rating agency opines that hardware spending is expected to improve significantly in 2025.
The server shipments are expected to increase ~4% but revenue growth will be significantly higher considering high AI server ASPs. The firm sees network equipment and mobile telecom equipment makers returning to growth while storage sales are expected to grow ~4%. Hyperscale cloud providers are expected to sustain strong revenue growth of over 20%, and the rest of IT services can recover with a growth of ~5% after lackluster performance over the previous 2 years. S&P Global sees this recovery due to the early signs of demand stabilization during Q2 2024 and Q3 2024, with several IT service providers reporting growth in bookings for large transformation projects and improving annual contract values in critical verticals.
READ ALSO: 7 Best Stocks to Buy For Long-Term and 8 Cheap Jim Cramer Stocks to Invest In.
Key Trends for 2025
In 2025, Capgemini expects AI and GenAI to have a significant impact on companies’ priorities and also on several adjacent technology domains, including robotics, supply chains, and tomorrow’s energy mix. Autonomous intelligent systems continue to be more prevalent in performing certain tasks. The next step will be the rise of a ‘super-agent,’ who can orchestrate and optimize several AI systems. In 2025, such advancements are expected to allow new AI ecosystems throughout industries.
The businesses have been navigating complex and unpredictable market conditions. As per Capgemini, technologies such as AI, data, blockchain, IoT, and connectivity with terrestrial-satellite networks can help enhance cost efficiency, resilience, agility, and sustainability of supply chains. Furthermore, additional regulatory and environmental constraints are expected to make this pivot important to ensure competitiveness, agility, and resilience.
Our Methodology
To list the 10 Best Long Term Tech Stocks to Buy Right Now, we used a screener to shortlist the stocks catering to the broader technology sector. Next, we filtered out the ones that have at least 10%-12% revenue growth over the past 10 years and are popular among hedge funds. Finally, the stocks are arranged in ascending order of their hedge fund sentiment, as of Q4 2024.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
A development team working together to create the next version of Windows.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)
10-Year Revenue Growth: ~10.8%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 317
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is engaged in developing and supporting software, services, devices, and solutions. The company’s early and aggressive investments in AI place it well in the transformative technology. Furthermore, AI integration throughout Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s product portfolio, from Azure cloud services to productivity tools such as M365 Copilot, results in creating several avenues for revenue growth. With AI becoming increasingly central to business operations, the company’s comprehensive AI offerings are expected to drive consistent demand for services and strengthen its market position.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s Azure platform is expected to drive the next leg of growth. The company’s healthy enterprise relationships, comprehensive suite of cloud services, and integration with significantly-used productivity tools provide it with a competitive edge. Overall, the company is well-placed to benefit from the growth of the broader technology industry via higher demand for AI, cloud computing, and enterprise software solutions. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s strong presence in AI-powered services, expansion of Azure cloud, and enterprise productivity tools place it for sustained revenue growth.
Mairs & Power, an investment advisor, released the Q4 2024 investor letter. Here is what the fund said:
“Unlike the dot-com companies that operated at the turn-of-the-century, many of today’s technology companies are established businesses with significant cash flows. We have argued, and continue to argue, that many of these investments are perfectly aligned with our investments process in that they embody durable competitive advantages, above-average growth prospects, and excellent management teams.
A perfect example is Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), which has grown to become the largest holding in the Growth Fund. Microsoft has a near monopoly on the office software productivity market with its Microsoft Office Suite. The company’s Azure platform is a leader in cloud computing and has been steadily gaining share. Thanks to its Office and Azure products, the company is deeply embedded within many enterprise IT ecosystems. Therefore, it should be well-positioned to expand its presence within its customer base, as it rolls out premium-price AI solutions. The company is not resting on its laurels and plans on spending an astounding $80 billion in 2025 to build out AI data centers.”
Overall, MSFT ranks 2nd on our list of best long term tech stocks to buy right now. While we acknowledge the potential of MSFT as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some deeply undervalued AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for a deeply undervalued AI stock that is more promising than MSFT but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and Complete List of 59 AI Companies Under $2 Billion in Market Cap
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.