Shares of Microsoft Corp. shot up 3.8% toward a record high in premarket trade Friday, in the wake of fiscal third-quarter results, prompting J.P. Morgan to turn bullish on the software giant. The price gain could add about 25 points to the Dow Jones Industrial Average's price. Analyst Mark Murphy raised it rating to overweight, after being at neutral since at least July 2015, and raised his stock price target to $110 from $94. Murphy said he had previously been neutral, despite Microsoft's stock strength relative to the S&P 500 because "there have been other ways to position for outperformance in software." Moving forward, however, Murphy said he sees upside potential based on the global movement toward multi-cloud architectures benefiting the Azure business, linkage to large digital transformation initiatives and favorable positioning for hybrid cloud architectures. He said Azure could reach a $15 billion run rate in two to three years, "justifying fundamental optimism." The stock has run up 10.2% year to date through Thursday, while the Dow has lost 1.6% and the S&P 500 has eased 0.3%.