9 attractive software stocks to buy right now: Morgan Stanley

2026-02-09T18:34:51.548Z

Anthropic’s latest AI tool sparked a tech stock panic last week.
Still, Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson remains optimistic about the technology and software sector.
Software analyst Keith Weiss shared his 9 stock picks (MSFT, TEAM, NOW, etc.).

After Anthropic’s Claude AI caused a brief panic in tech stocks last week, investors are looking for answers about what happens next.

Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson had some words of comfort for investors spooked by the sudden drop. The bank’s head of equity strategy urged investors to keep their eyes on the ball and expressed a constructive outlook for the technology sector, which leverages software and broader AI.

“The combination of weak software price action, hyperscaler capex guides, and last week’s degrowth led to a flurry of questions from investors about how much downside remains in areas that appear to be disrupted by AI,” Wilson wrote. “Last week’s events also led to questions about whether the market is likely to regulate high capital expenditures by hyperscalers in a structural manner. In this context, we point to several ‘glass half-full’ observations.”

He continued: “In short, times like last week are not unusual in major investment cycles where volatility is widening and sometimes disparate. That said, fundamental tailwinds still exist for the AI enabler complex, and we believe AI adopters still trade undervalued.”

Wilson cited several reasons to remain positive on software stocks.

Forecast for 12-month earnings growth is 18%, which Morgan Stanley said is the highest level in decades.
Its 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) is currently 27, which is in the 12th percentile for the mega-cap group since 2023, the bank said.
Investors still prefer capital spending on AI. It is said that the market is starting to tighten spending, but stocks with high spending levels relative to sales are outperforming.
Earnings revisions are starting to widen across different parts of the tech sector, indicating growing optimism in more stocks.
Investors are still rewarding companies that implement AI. MS stated that companies that have introduced AI outperform companies that have not introduced AI by about 1% on average the day after reporting their financial results.
Finally, the US dollar has depreciated by 9% over the past 12 months. Many mega-cap companies have overseas sales exposure and should therefore benefit from increased demand from overseas customers.

The bank highlighted nine tech stocks that software team leader Keith Weiss likes right now.

microsoft

Ticker: MSFT

Analyst comments: “Overwhelmingly cited by CIOs as the company with the largest increase in IT wallet share due to cloud migration and adoption of GenAI technology, Microsoft trades at an attractive PEG ratio of 1.2x on CY26e GAAP EPS, while positioning itself as a clear participant in the most important innovation cycles in technology.As capacity is unlocked and the M365 Copilot product cycle accelerates, Azure Our latest research shows that 80% of CIOs are already using or plan to use this solution within the next 12 months, which should act as a significant catalyst for stock prices. ”

intuition

Ticker: INTU

Analyst comments: “After two consecutive years of accelerated revenue growth, both our Global Business Solutions (Intuit Enterprise Suite) and Consumer (TurboTax Full Assist) product cycles have the ability to drive a third year of accelerated growth. At the same time, our internal use of AI tools should enable solid margin expansion, and our current multiple of 27x CY26e GAAP EPS or 1.1x PEG should prove very attractive.”

sales force

Ticker: CRM

Analyst comments: “The front office is in the eye of the typhoon in terms of workflows that CIOs expect to further automate with GenAI capabilities, and Salesforce is a beneficiary, ranking No. 4 on the CIO list of vendors gaining IT wallet share with GenAI adoption.” In its latest Q3 2025 financial results, Salesforce saw AI-related ARR increase 114% year-over-year and now exceed $1.4 billion for its Agentforce (ARR of $500 million) and data cloud products at 24X. CY26 GAAP EPS provides an attractive entry point ahead of these product cycles and is a good demonstration of Salesforce’s participation in the GenAI innovation cycle.”

Service NOW

Ticker: now

Analyst comments: “While the fourth quarter results were not strong enough to break through the noise, FCF forward estimates rose 6% post-print. Further revisions are expected in the near future as the core platform expands into areas such as ITOM, ITAM, CRM and security, product cycles around ProPlus sku and data fabric accelerate, and margin expansion allows for stability in the core business.”

atlassian

Ticker: team

Analyst comments: “In its latest results, Atlassian showed improved net revenue retention (for the third consecutive quarter) and RPO growth of over 44% year-over-year. However, the stock declined as cloud organic growth slowed slightly to 25% year-over-year.Given its high exposure to software developers in its Jira and Confluence businesses, Atlassian But our research shows that these concerns are not only wrong, but misguided and too narrow-minded.” ”

snowflake

Ticker: snow

Analyst comments: “After a strong rebound from the bottom in 2025, discussions over the size of the fourth-quarter beat and concerns about initial guidance for FY27 weighed on stocks.While initial guidance remains to be achieved, our checks remain constructive, with recent CIO research showing that Snowflake ranks among large-cap stocks. Data infrastructure has been one of the few areas where software spending has been strong in the past 12 to 18 months as customers prioritize data modernization and data preparation initiatives. We expect this trend to continue into CY26, supporting Snowflake’s top-line growth in the second half of the decade.”

cloudflare

Ticker: net

Analyst comments: “Our high pace of product innovation, market leadership where Cloudflare controls and secures more than 20% of the world’s internet traffic, consistent financial execution as evidenced by an average of 32% year-over-year revenue growth over the past eight quarters, and the adaptability of our business model have made us one of the best athletes in software, positioning us to take full advantage of the opportunities presented by rapid changes in technology and business models.”

Shopify

Ticker: shop

Analyst comments: “Historically, Shopify has been able to accelerate share growth during times of technology change and market disruption.Agentic With the arrival of Commerce on the horizon, Shopify once again finds itself well-positioned to capture a more than fair share of the growing online commerce pie. We see potential for sustained FCF growth of over 25% in the coming years as the company takes the lead in leveraging AI technology to increase the leverage of its business.”

palo alto networks

Ticker: Panwoo

Analyst comments: “GenAI brings multiple tailwinds to cybersecurity, expanding the universe of protected technologies, increasing the sophistication of attacks from malicious actors, and bringing new regulations to data security. Expanding Palo Alto Networks’ portfolio continues to be our favorite strategy for these positive demand dynamics.”

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