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Microsoft Stock Gets Thumbs Up From Oppenheimer

Microsoft ( MSFT ) received a vote of confidence Thursday from investment bank Oppenheimer & Co., which assumed coverage of the software giant with an outperform rating. Oppenheimer analyst Timothy Horan set a 12- to 18-month price target of 62 on Microsoft stock. Microsoft shares were up more than 1% to near 55 in midday trading on the stock market today . Microsoft gets a 75 Composite Rating from IBD out of a possible 99; the Composite Rating looks at earnings growth, stock price gains and a raft of other factors. Microsoft “is putting the right strategy in place to be at the forefront of the next generation of computing and to defend and grow market share,” Horan said in a report. “Instead of fighting the inevitable shift to the cloud, Microsoft is fully embracing it.” The company is offering enterprise customers a fully integrated hybrid cloud system that connects on-premise hardware and software with Internet cloud services, he said, adding that Microsoft has a competitive advantage through its large installed base of enterprise customers. “Microsoft controls over 90% of the enterprise office suite and about 75% of the enterprise operating system market,” he said. “As workloads shift to the cloud, we believe Microsoft will be successful in bundling in premium (software- and platform-as-a-service) products, enabling it to defend its market share and expand its total addressable market with new product offerings.” Oppenheimer believes that most information technology functions will shift to cloud services by 2020. Horan believes that Microsoft will be able to reach its goal of $20 billion in cloud revenue by fiscal 2018, up from a current annual run rate of $9.4 billion. Microsoft’s major cloud products include Office 365, Azure and Dynamics CRM Online. It competes in cloud computing with Amazon.com ( AMZN ), Alphabet ’s ( GOOGL ) Google, Salesforce.com ( CRM ) and others. RELATED:  Microsoft Azure Cloud Service Seen Turning Profitable This Year

Apple iCloud Shifts Spending To Google From Amazon’s AWS: Report

Apple ( AAPL ) is shifting some of its iCloud infrastructure to Alphabet ( GOOGL ) unit Google from Amazon ( AMZN ) Web Services, according to a report Wednesday. The deal was made last year, with Apple agreeing to spend $400 million to $600 million at Google Cloud, according to CRN, citing sources. CRN set it wasn’t clear if that was an annualized rate or total spending amount. This would be a big coup for Alphabet’s Google, which has been trying to make a bigger mark in enterprise cloud services, taking on Amazon’s AWS and Microsoft ( MSFT ) unit Azure. Google in November hired VMware ( VMW ) co-founder and ex-CEO Diane Green to run its cloud operations.  Streaming music giant Spotify last month said it was shifting its infrastructure over to Google Cloud. Google and Verizon Communications ( VZ ) reportedly have been in talks on a hybrid cloud partnership. Apple has never officially confirmed that it uses AWS and Microsoft’s Azure. However, Morgan Stanley recently estimated that Apple spends $1 billion a year with Amazon’s AWS. Apple also is spending billions of dollars on data centers, suggesting it may seek to reduce its reliance on cloud services firms such as AWS.

Google Update Boosts Ranking Signal For Mobile-Friendly Web Pages

Alphabet ( GOOGL ) unit Google said Wednesday that it is launching an update to mobile search results to help users find more mobile-friendly Web pages. “Getting good, relevant answers when you search shouldn’t depend on what device you’re using. You should get the best answer possible, whether you’re on a phone, desktop or tablet,” the company said in a blog post . Last year, the company said it would use “mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal on mobile searches.” Beginning in May, Google said, “we’ll start rolling out an update to mobile search results that increases the effect of the ranking signal to help our users find even more pages that are relevant and mobile-friendly.” The company said the goal of the upgrade was to “help our users find even more pages that are relevant and mobile-friendly,” although Google didn’t specify how much of an impact it expects the change to have. Sites that area already deemed mobile-friendly will not be impacted by the update. In November 2014, Google started labeling sites as “mobile friendly” to indicate which pages were size optimized to be read on smaller screens. Then, in February 2015, Google announced plans to roll out mobile ranking changes on April 21. A Web page is eligible to wear the “mobile-friendly” label if it avoids software such as Flash that is not common on mobile devices and uses text that is readable without zooming. Mobile-friendly sites also place links far enough apart so a user’s finger can easily tap the correct one. Google started using the label as a ranking factor worldwide in April. Google’s Mobilegeddon — its rollout of major changes to its search algorithm last April 2015 giving priority to mobile-friendly websites that adjust the look of a Web page on smaller screens — likely had a modest impact on advertising, analysts said. Google offers a Webmaster Mobile Guide with more details for web developers. Look for Google’s mobile-friendly test tool here . The search leader faces tougher competition from U.S.-based rivals led by Facebook ( FB )  and foreign stalwarts such as China search leader Baidu ( BIDU ) .