Like the remainder of its tech brethren, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had a troublesome 2022, as its shares fell greater than 25% on worries over rising rates of interest, surging inflation and a slowing international financial system.

While 2023 is just not anticipated to be fairly as dangerous as 2022, sentiments stay sturdy in regards to the international financial system slowing additional and potential tip into a recession. However, there are some views on Wall Street that the software program large might nonetheless see enterprise bettering this yr.

Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss, who has an chubby score on Microsoft (MSFT), famous the corporate is probably going to profit from continued IT spending and is considered greater than the place it is positioned in the funding agency’s survey of chief data officers.

The survey, which expects software program spending to develop 3.3% in 2023, identified that Microsoft (MSFT) is “higher positioned than most” in a downturn, provided that it’s nonetheless the chief in anticipated IT finances beneficial properties due to the shift to the cloud. Additionally, the survey added that Microsoft (MSFT) is anticipated to have a web of 40% of anticipated share beneficial properties for IT pockets spending, nicely forward of Amazon (AMZN), which is anticipated to seize 24% of beneficial properties.

Weiss stated that Microsoft (MSFT) expanded its lead over Amazon (AMZN), with about 48% of the CIOs surveyed now anticipating Microsoft “to see the most important incremental IT finances share beneficial properties over the subsequent three years,” in contrast to 15% for Amazon.

In addition, Microsoft (MSFT) has continued to make beneficial properties in different areas akin to safety, cloud computing, information warehousing, enterprise intelligence and analytics, digital transformation and synthetic intelligence and machine studying.

The firm might make additional advances in AI if it integrates OpenAI’s ChatGPT into its merchandise, together with Bing and Office, one thing the corporate has reportedly mentioned.

Lastly, Microsoft (MSFT) appears poised to profit as clients slim down the variety of distributors in areas akin to information administration and automation, in accordance to the CIO survey.

“With CIOs more and more wanting to consolidate distributors in a slowing spending atmosphere, we see Microsoft as finest positioned to profit from consolidation given its breadth of capabilities and alignment to CIO precedence record and defensive IT tasks,” Weiss added.

Despite the anticipated advantages this yr, not every part is arising roses for Microsoft (MSFT).

Firstly, it can have to take care of a weaker IT spending atmosphere, although that’s one thing that each firm in the area will doubtless have to face.

Additionally, there may be the potential that the expectations seen in the survey for Microsoft (MSFT) don’t come to fruition, together with potential downgrades for Microsoft 365, beforehand often known as Office 365, due to its pricing.

According to the survey, 8% of CIOs stated they’d downgrade subscription tiers in the subsequent yr, whereas 5% stated they’d swap to lower-priced variations of Microsoft 365, with fewer choices, which might impression Microsoft’s (MSFT) income.

Nonetheless, the expectation is that Microsoft (MSFT) will wind up higher than its friends, a thesis that has not but proven up in its inventory, because it trades at roughly 19 occasions estimated 2024 earnings, in contrast to roughly 30 occasions for friends.

“While there are positively some indicators Microsoft is just not immune from the weaker IT spending atmosphere, the preponderance of proof in our survey work suggests favorable near-term consolidation tendencies and additional enchancment in the longer-term positioning towards core secular development initiatives,” Weiss wrote.

On Thursday, Citi listed Microsoft (MSFT) amongst its favourite enterprise utility software program shares for 2023.