According to a recent report by analysts at Pacific Crest, Microsoft’s latest sales figures are simply in line with analyst’s expectations. Accordingly, the analyst firm has maintained its Overweight rating on Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) . This rating comes with a price target of $55.
While there has been some indications that consumer demand for Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows 10, is increasing, the actual sales figures that have come online so far have merely kept on track with expectations. The hopeful signals the analysts have been detecting with Windows 10 come from consumer inquiries of big retailers regarding updates to Windows 10, regarding whether they should update to Windows10, or asking for features regarding Windows 10. Also when retailers were surveyed, around 17% of them said that the sales of Windows 10 have been higher than initially expected. Considering how much of a public relations bust Windows 8 was, it is no surprise that a lot of consumers have a pent up demand for Windows 10.
As any observer of Microsoft stock and product history can remember, the company stumbled out of the gate with Windows 8. In fact, they dropped the ball so badly that they had to quickly release a patch just to try to gain some measure of control over the consumer clamor for a simpler interface. The positive news regarding Windows 10 should not be entirely unexpected because Microsoft has released preview versions before, and those have been met with a generally positive response.
As I’ve mentioned previously, Microsoft tends to have a pattern of releasing bad operating systems followed by well-received operating systems. They seem to alternate, dating as far back as Windows XP. It appears that with the launch of Windows 10 and its perceived positive reception, Microsoft hasn’t completely broken out of this pattern.