Investors seem to be focused on 's (NASDAQ: MSFT) attractive qualities as 2023 draws to a close. The software giant's stock price is up over 50% through mid-December, easily beating the 38% increase in the Nasdaq Composite to date.

Bulls are in charge of the stock's path right now thanks to encouraging signs around enterprise tech spending, artificial intelligence (AI), and economic growth. But, like any stock, Microsoft could fail to deliver good returns for shareholders from here. Let's take a closer look at that bullish thesis and one major fact that could threaten investors' returns.

Microsoft's portfolio of software services is becoming more valuable to its customers, which is great news for its long-term growth outlook. It's true that much of this value is coming from the emerging field of AI, a potentially overhyped investing trend on Wall Street these days. Yet Microsoft is getting concrete benefits from AI, such as boosting productivity across areas like cloud enterprise services, cybersecurity, and personal computing.

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Source Fool.com