** Shares of Microsoft MSFT.O fall 1.5% to $407.86 in premarket trading
** Stifel downgrades MSFT stock to "hold" from "buy" on bleak Azure growth catalysts in the near term
** Brokerage cuts PT on stock to Street low of $392 from $540, implying more than 5% downside to stock's last close
** While MSFT is well-positioned to navigate the evolving AI landscape in the long term, its near-term prospects seem a bit more cloudy as Google appears to be rapidly gaining AI share and MSFT's OpenAI relationship is not nearly as additive as it once was - Stifel analysts
** MSFT reported Q2 results last month, its capital spending totaled $37.5 billion in Q2, a jump of nearly 66% from last year
** "We see no near-term catalysts and expect the stock to be range bound until either CAPEX growth slows below Azure growth and/or Azure posts a significant acceleration," Stifel said
** 56 of 60 brokerages rate the stock "buy" or higher, and rest rate it "hold"; their median PT is $600 - data compiled by LSEG
** YTD, MSFT was down 14.4% as of last close
(Reporting by Kanchana Chakravarty in Bengaluru)
((Kanchana.Chakravarty@thomsonreuters.com;))
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