The seventh selection in our annual Christmas stock selection countdown is Microsoft (MSFT).

We’ve arrived at six geese a-laying. And a question.

Microsoft, are you a good egg or a bad egg?

MSFT: “We’re not an egg at all!”

We eggs-tracted Microsoft (MSFT) from Sam Stovall’s favorites by concentrating on the highest-quality companies on his list that also had above-average return forecasts. That list is shown here:

In an Eggshell: These are all good eggs. (rimshot?)

But keeping things really really simple — we really really like the Value Line total return forecast and all of these are good. But Microsoft (MSFT) stands heads and shoulders above the field. Will there be speed bumps ahead? Absolutely. The stock price could languish and the Microsoft haters (low overall long-term sentiment) could persist for a long time. But the company continues to have a plethora of solid characteristics, decent fundamentals and a wide berth of opportunity.

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