We recently published a list of 8 Best Video Conferencing Stocks To Buy According to Analysts. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) stands against other best video conferencing stocks to buy according to analysts.

An Overview of The Video Conferencing Industry

Video conferencing software connects two or more parties virtually through video and audio over an internet connection. During the COVID-19 pandemic when lockdowns shut almost everything, the video conferencing market witnessed a surge in demand. According to a report by Grand View Research, the video conferencing market was valued at around $4.21 billion in 2020 and the valuation rose significantly to around $7 billion in 2022. Moreover, as per the most recent figures. The video conferencing market was valued at $28.61 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow from $33.04 billion in 2024 to $60.17 billion by 2032, indicating a compound annual growth rate of 7.8%.

According to a BBC report published on June 3rd, 2020, during the pandemic, the usage of the video conferencing platform Zoom surged 30 times in April 2020 alone. The report further highlighted that the daily participant usage exceeded 300 million users during peak pandemic times.

READ MORE: 10 Best Internet Retail Stocks to Buy Now and 8 Best Industrial Stocks To Buy According to Analysts.

At first, the market growth was driven by the pandemic and lockdowns around the globe, which forced businesses, government organizations, and education institutes to adopt virtual modes of engagement. For instance, in May 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) held its first-ever virtual assembly. Moreover, educational institutes used videoconferencing software to conduct graduation ceremonies.

Fast forwarding to the post-pandemic era now that the world is back to normal the video conferencing market is driven by the rise in remote jobs and e-learning. According to a report by Pew Research published on March 30, 2023, around 35% of the US workforce was working remotely in 2023. Although this figure was down from 43% recorded in January 2022 and 55% in October 2020, which is the pandemic era, the percentage of remote workers was still up 7% compared to pre-pandemic years.

Looking at the regional insights, North America held the largest market share of around 31% in 2023 as it benefits from the large organizations that are engaged in developing video conferencing software. Moreover, the region is also home to an experienced workforce capable of adopting remote work. In addition to North America, the Asia Pacific region is expected to grow at the fastest CAGR due to the growing interest in digitalization across businesses, governments, and educational institutes.

Looking ahead, the rise and recent developments in artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and cloud technologies are expected to further boost the video conferencing market. According to a report by the World Economic Forum, global digital jobs are estimated to grow by around 25% to reach over 95 million indicating the growth prospects for video conferencing software due to its indispensable position for remotely operating organizations.

Our Methodology

To curate the list of 8 best video conferencing stocks to buy according to analysts we used various internet rankings and our previous articles. We compiled a list of video conferencing companies that were most widely held by hedge funds, sourced from Insider Monkey’s Q2 2024 hedge funds database. Next we checked analysts upside potential for each stock from CNN and ranked our stocks in ascending order of their upside potential. Please note that the data was recorded on November 8th 2024.

Why do we care about what hedge funds do? 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 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 279

Analysts Upside Potential: 21.52%

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a leading technology company that develops a wide range of software, services, devices, and solutions. Its offerings span several segments, including Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing.

The company is renowned for Microsoft Teams when it comes to video conferencing. The platform not only allows users to host meetings from anywhere, supporting both in-person and remote participants but also supports breakout rooms for smaller group discussions. Teams can accommodate up to 300 participants in a single meeting, with advanced plans allowing for webinars with up to 10,000 attendees.

In addition to basic video conferencing capabilities, Microsoft Teams integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft 365 applications including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. This integration allows users to share files easily during meetings and collaborate in real-time on documents.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) released its first-quarter results for fiscal 2025 on October 30 indicating top-line growth of 16% and bottom-line growth of 11%, year-over-year. The Productivity and Business Processes segment which operates Microsoft 365 commercial products and Microsoft Teams was one of the major contributors to revenue growth. The segment revenue for the quarter was $28.3 billion, up 12% year-over-year.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is one of the best video conferencing stocks to buy according to analysts.

Baron Opportunity Fund stated the following regarding Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:

“Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is the world’s largest software and cloud computing company. Microsoft was traditionally known for its Windows and Office products, but over the last five years it has built a $147 billion run-rate cloud business, including its Azure cloud infrastructure service and its Office 365 and Dynamics 365 cloud-delivered applications. Shares gave back some gains from strong performance over the first half of this year. For the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2024, Microsoft reported a strong quarter with total revenue growing 16%, in line with the Street; Microsoft Cloud up 22%; Azure up 30%; 43% operating income margins; and 36% free cash flow margins. Core Azure growth came in one point shy of expectations, however, due to a soft European market and continued constraints on AI compute capacity. In the same vein, while Microsoft reiterated its fiscal 2025 targets of double-digit top-line and operating income growth, quarterly guidance called for Azure growth to slow a bit before accelerating in the back half of the fiscal year, as capital expenditures increase, yielding an expansion of AI compute capacity. We believe this investment is a leading indicator for growth, with more than half of the spend related to durable land and data center build outs, which should monetize over the next 15-plus years. We remain confident that Microsoft is one of the best-positioned companies across the overlapping software, cloud computing, and AI landscapes, and we remain investors.”

Overall, MSFT ranks 3rd on our list of best video conferencing stocks to buy according to analysts. While we acknowledge the potential of MSFT to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an 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: 8 Best Wide Moat Stocks to Buy Now and 30 Most Important AI Stocks According to BlackRock.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.