Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) has appointed Carolina Dybeck Happe as its new EVP and COO.

Happe served at GE as SVP and CFO from 2020 until September 2023. Reuters reports that she was pivotal in leading the company's turnaround and helped complete the spin-off of energy infrastructure unit GE Vernova in April 2024 after she stepped down from her role as CFO.

Microsoft's move coincides with its pursuit of the lead in the cloud services market by solidifying its moat against Amazon.Com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) Amazon Web Services.

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The hiring also followed the CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc (NASDAQ:CRWD) outage that hampered Microsoft devices, Reuters cites D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria.

Microsoft made another critical hiring earlier this year. In March 2024, the company poached the co-founder of Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google DeepMind AI lab co-founder Mustafa Suleyman from Inflection AI to lead Microsoft's AI division.

Microsoft gained over 27% in the last 12 months. Investors can gain exposure to the stock through iShares Global Tech ETF (NYSE:IXN) and Vanguard Information Tech ETF (NYSE:VGT).

Microsoft Stock Prediction For 2024

Equity research analysts on and off Wall Street typically use earnings growth and fundamental research as a form of valuation and forecasting. But many in trading turn to technical analysis as a way to form predictive models for share price trajectory.

Some investors look to trends to help forecast where they believe a stock could trade at a certain point in the future. Looking at Microsoft, an investor could make an assessment about a stock's long term prospects using a moving average and trend line. If they believe a stock will remain above the moving average, which many believe is a bullish signal, they can extrapolate that trend into the future using a trend line.

For Microsoft, the 200-day moving average sits at $412.21, according to Benzinga Pro, which is below the current price of $427.0. For more on charts and trend lines, see a description here.

Traders believe that when a stock is above its moving average, it is a generally bullish signal, and when it crosses below, it is a more negative signal. Investors could use trend lines to make an educated guess about where a stock could trade at a later date if conditions remain stable.

Price Action: MSFT stock traded lower by 0.19% at $426.21 premarket at the last check on Friday.

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