UPDATE: Stifel Nicolaus Resumes Buy on Microsoft; Value Unlocking Again

Stifel Nicolaus resumes its coverage on Microsoft MSFT with a Buy rating and a price target of $38, as it believes the company is not "the dead money" investors have thought in recent years. Stifel Nicolaus says, "While many investors have viewed MSFT as “dead money” and a “value trap” over the past few years, we believe the tides are finally changing and think the name is falling back into favor. We believe MSFT has plenty of legs remaining in several of its products (Office 2010, Windows 7, Kinect, etc.), has one of the most promising product cycles (Windows 8, Windows 8 Server, Office 12, etc.) in its history in front of it, and is levered to numerous secular trends (cloud computing, virtualization, big data, etc.), which should enable the company to outpace IT spending and outperform its peers for the foreseeable future." MSFT closed at $31.80 on Thursday.