Just back from a few days off to find a pair of bullish notes on Microsoft; and what a pleasure it is to see something positive after the carnage of last week. Goldman Sachs analyst Sarah Friar raised her earnings estimates for the software giant on the strength of what she believes were strong holiday sales by the entertainment and devices division, and strong PC growth during the quarter and throughout the yea Just back from a few days off to find a pair of bullish notes on Microsoft; and what a pleasure it is to see something positive after the carnage of last week. Goldman Sachs analyst Sarah Friar raised her earnings estimates for the software giant on the strength of what she believes were strong holiday sales by the entertainment and devices division, and strong PC growth during the quarter and throughout the year. Friar raised her earnings estimate for the second quarter by a penny a share to 45 cents, and bumped up her price target by $1 to $40 a share. Not a huge revision, obviously, but given the runup in Microsoft’s shares (about 16.7%) over the last year, her comment that the stock is still “attractive” is significant. Friar told clients that “we still view the stock as attractive given ongoing product cycle momentum, broad international exposure, and a boost from stronger than expected PC unit growth,”Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research listed a number of catalysts for the first half of the year, including the launch of Mac Office at MacWorld later this month. “We believe Mac Platform contribute to ~15% – 17% of Microsoft Office and Windows revenues,” he said in a research note. He expects Microsoft to deliver a bullish update on the general tone of its business when it meets with analysts in February; a positive buzz caused by the meeting might well give the stock a boost. Chowdhry also sees some lift caused by the late February launch of SQL Server 2008, Windows Server 2008, Silverlight 2.0 and Visual Studio. The analyst also expects Microsoft to sue Red Hat and perhaps other open source companies which the Redmonders allege are in violation of parts of its patent portfolio. (Disclosure: I have a small position in Microsoft.)I welcome your comments, tips and suggestions. Reach me at bill.snyder@sbcglobal.net. Technology Industry