Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

HomeStock IdeasLong IdeasTech 

SummaryMicrosoft is upgraded to Buy after Copilot monetization and Azure growth exceeded expectations, validating prior concerns about adoption.MSFT's Azure revenue accelerated to 43% growth, surpassing $100 billion annually, with management guiding to 45% growth next quarter.Copilot paid seats surged from 20 million to over 30 million in a single quarter, confirming enterprise adoption is moving to production scale.Despite a reasonable forward P/E, MSFT faces elevated capex guidance of $255-260 billion for fiscal 2027, pressuring free cash flow and warranting disciplined optimism. tupungato/iStock Editorial via Getty Images

Introduction Prior to the fiscal fourth quarter results from Microsoft Corporation (MSFT), I had a Hold rating on the stock with very clear conditions for changing my stance. I wrote that I would turn

237 Followers

Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.

Posted by Defense World Staff on Jul 30th, 2026

Avantax Planning Partners Inc. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) by 24.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 51,692 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,139 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 0.5% of Avantax Planning Partners Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 29th biggest holding. Avantax Planning Partners Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $19,135,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Canal Insurance CO grew its holdings in Microsoft by 9.5% during the 1st quarter. Canal Insurance CO now owns 57,500 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $21,285,000 after purchasing an additional 5,000 shares during the last quarter. Riverpoint Wealth Management Holdings LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Riverpoint Wealth Management Holdings LLC now owns 5,543 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,052,000 after buying an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. Nicholson Wealth Management Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 3.1% during the first quarter. Nicholson Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 7,691 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,847,000 after buying an additional 234 shares during the last quarter. Summit Wealth Group LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 10.8% in the 1st quarter. Summit Wealth Group LLC now owns 7,452 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,758,000 after buying an additional 728 shares during the period. Finally, Beckerman Institutional LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 11.0% in the first quarter. Beckerman Institutional LLC now owns 3,251 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,203,000 after purchasing an additional 322 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets A number of research analysts have weighed in on MSFT shares. CLSA reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday. Morgan Stanley began coverage on Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. They set an “overweight” rating and a $600.00 price target for the company. New Street Research decreased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $675.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Scotiabank upgraded shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Forty-two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $554.73.

View Our Latest Research Report on Microsoft

Insider Transactions at Microsoft In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $402.84, for a total transaction of $1,812,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 47,468 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,122,009.12. The trade was a 8.66% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $460.99, for a total value of $7,145,345.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 110,477 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,928,792.23. The trade was a 12.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 23,762 shares of company stock worth $10,508,361 over the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Key Headlines Impacting Microsoft Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

Positive Sentiment: Microsoft reported fiscal Q4 revenue of approximately $90.0 billion, up 18% year over year and above the $87.6 billion consensus estimate. Adjusted earnings of $4.74 per share also exceeded expectations of $4.21, marking the company’s 14th consecutive “double beat.” Microsoft Q4 Earnings and Revenues Top Estimates Positive Sentiment: Azure revenue grew 43%, exceeding analysts’ expectations of roughly 40%, and the cloud platform surpassed $100 billion in annual revenue. The results eased concerns that Microsoft’s AI infrastructure investments may be outpacing customer demand. Microsoft Tops Quarterly Cloud Growth Estimates Positive Sentiment: Microsoft said Microsoft 365 Copilot reached 30 million paid seats, providing evidence of growing monetization for its AI products. The company also recorded a $3.2 billion gain from its Anthropic investment, although returns from its OpenAI investment were more mixed. Azure Crosses $100 Billion in Annual Revenue Positive Sentiment: Microsoft maintained its AI capital-expenditure outlook rather than following Alphabet’s recent increase. Investors viewed the spending discipline as supportive of margins and free cash flow, while first-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue guidance of $89.9 billion to $91.0 billion was slightly above consensus. Microsoft Keeps Capex Forecast Unchanged Neutral Sentiment: Investors had positioned for an unusually large post-earnings move, with options implying roughly a 6% to 7% swing. This elevated volatility reflects the importance of Microsoft’s results to the broader AI investment theme. Negative Sentiment: Microsoft faces a U.K. regulatory investigation into whether customers were misled about Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscription pricing. The probe creates potential reputational and compliance risks, though its near-term financial impact is unclear. UK Regulator Investigates Microsoft Over 365 Subscriptions Negative Sentiment: Disney’s decision to replace GitHub Copilot with OpenAI’s Codex highlights intensifying competition in AI coding tools. Multiple shareholder lawsuits concerning alleged Copilot and Azure disclosures also remain an overhang. Microsoft Price Performance Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $390.54 on Thursday. Microsoft Corporation has a 12 month low of $349.20 and a 12 month high of $555.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.27. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $396.43 and its 200 day moving average price is $405.74. The stock has a market cap of $2.90 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.25, a PEG ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.13.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.50. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.94% and a net margin of 39.34%.The company had revenue of $90.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $87.62 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.65 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be given a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.67%.

Microsoft Profile (Free Report)

Microsoft Corporation is a global technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft develops, licenses and supports a broad range of software products, services and devices for consumers, enterprises and governments worldwide. Its operations span personal computing, productivity software, cloud infrastructure, enterprise applications, developer tools and gaming.

Microsoft’s product portfolio includes the Windows operating system and the Microsoft 365 suite of productivity and collaboration tools (Office apps, Outlook, Teams).

Featured Articles Five stocks we like better than Microsoft Why SK hynix Could Be the Best AI Chip Stock to Buy Now Seagate Technology Stock Surges as Earnings Beat Silences AI Doubters Alphabet Is Down 18% From Its High After a Stellar Quarter—Overdone, or More Downside Ahead? Why Bloom Energy May Be the Most Important AI Infrastructure Stock

Receive News & Ratings for Microsoft Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Microsoft and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.

« PREVIOUS HEADLINEC4 Therapeutics (CCCC) to Announce Earnings on Thursday

NEXT HEADLINE »Yelp (YELP) Projected to Post Earnings on Thursday

Posted by Defense World Staff on Jul 30th, 2026

Fortress Financial Solutions LLC trimmed its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) by 49.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,441 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 2,423 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for approximately 0.9% of Fortress Financial Solutions LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 26th biggest position. Fortress Financial Solutions LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $904,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Avantax Planning Partners Inc. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 24.4% in the first quarter. Avantax Planning Partners Inc. now owns 51,692 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $19,135,000 after purchasing an additional 10,139 shares during the period. Canal Insurance CO boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 9.5% during the first quarter. Canal Insurance CO now owns 57,500 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $21,285,000 after buying an additional 5,000 shares during the period. Riverpoint Wealth Management Holdings LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% during the first quarter. Riverpoint Wealth Management Holdings LLC now owns 5,543 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,052,000 after buying an additional 26 shares during the period. Nicholson Wealth Management Group LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 3.1% in the 1st quarter. Nicholson Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 7,691 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,847,000 after buying an additional 234 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Summit Wealth Group LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 10.8% in the 1st quarter. Summit Wealth Group LLC now owns 7,452 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,758,000 after buying an additional 728 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.7% Shares of MSFT stock opened at $390.54 on Thursday. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $349.20 and a 1 year high of $555.45. The stock has a market cap of $2.90 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.13. The business’s fifty day moving average is $396.43 and its 200-day moving average is $405.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.28.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. The company had revenue of $90.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.94% and a net margin of 39.34%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.65 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be given a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 21.67%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades MSFT has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on Microsoft from $595.00 to $680.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $586.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday. Argus lowered their price target on Microsoft from $620.00 to $510.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating and set a $646.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $600.00 price objective for the company. Forty-two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $554.73.

Check Out Our Latest Report on Microsoft

Insiders Place Their Bets In other news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.34, for a total transaction of $519,111.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 46,003 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,922,874.02. This trade represents a 2.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.99, for a total transaction of $7,145,345.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 110,477 shares in the company, valued at $50,928,792.23. This represents a 12.30% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 23,762 shares of company stock worth $10,508,361. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft News Roundup Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

Positive Sentiment: Microsoft reported fiscal Q4 revenue of approximately $90.0 billion, up 18% year over year and above the $87.6 billion consensus estimate. Adjusted earnings of $4.74 per share also exceeded expectations of $4.21, marking the company’s 14th consecutive “double beat.” Microsoft Q4 Earnings and Revenues Top Estimates Positive Sentiment: Azure revenue grew 43%, exceeding analysts’ expectations of roughly 40%, and the cloud platform surpassed $100 billion in annual revenue. The results eased concerns that Microsoft’s AI infrastructure investments may be outpacing customer demand. Microsoft Tops Quarterly Cloud Growth Estimates Positive Sentiment: Microsoft said Microsoft 365 Copilot reached 30 million paid seats, providing evidence of growing monetization for its AI products. The company also recorded a $3.2 billion gain from its Anthropic investment, although returns from its OpenAI investment were more mixed. Azure Crosses $100 Billion in Annual Revenue Positive Sentiment: Microsoft maintained its AI capital-expenditure outlook rather than following Alphabet’s recent increase. Investors viewed the spending discipline as supportive of margins and free cash flow, while first-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue guidance of $89.9 billion to $91.0 billion was slightly above consensus. Microsoft Keeps Capex Forecast Unchanged Neutral Sentiment: Investors had positioned for an unusually large post-earnings move, with options implying roughly a 6% to 7% swing. This elevated volatility reflects the importance of Microsoft’s results to the broader AI investment theme. Negative Sentiment: Microsoft faces a U.K. regulatory investigation into whether customers were misled about Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscription pricing. The probe creates potential reputational and compliance risks, though its near-term financial impact is unclear. UK Regulator Investigates Microsoft Over 365 Subscriptions Negative Sentiment: Disney’s decision to replace GitHub Copilot with OpenAI’s Codex highlights intensifying competition in AI coding tools. Multiple shareholder lawsuits concerning alleged Copilot and Azure disclosures also remain an overhang. Microsoft Profile (Free Report)

Microsoft Corporation is a global technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft develops, licenses and supports a broad range of software products, services and devices for consumers, enterprises and governments worldwide. Its operations span personal computing, productivity software, cloud infrastructure, enterprise applications, developer tools and gaming.

Microsoft’s product portfolio includes the Windows operating system and the Microsoft 365 suite of productivity and collaboration tools (Office apps, Outlook, Teams).

Recommended Stories Five stocks we like better than Microsoft Why SK hynix Could Be the Best AI Chip Stock to Buy Now Seagate Technology Stock Surges as Earnings Beat Silences AI Doubters Alphabet Is Down 18% From Its High After a Stellar Quarter—Overdone, or More Downside Ahead? Why Bloom Energy May Be the Most Important AI Infrastructure Stock

Receive News & Ratings for Microsoft Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Microsoft and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.

« PREVIOUS HEADLINEFifth Third Bancorp Makes New Investment in Douglas Dynamics, Inc. $PLOW

NEXT HEADLINE »Bank of New York Mellon Corp Sells 13,275 Shares of Q2 Holdings, Inc. $QTWO

Posted by Defense World Staff on Jul 30th, 2026

Cogent Strategic Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) by 139.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,892 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 1,685 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for approximately 1.1% of Cogent Strategic Wealth LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 22nd biggest holding. Cogent Strategic Wealth LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,071,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 51.3% during the second quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the period. Bernzott Capital Advisors acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Timmons Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Fairway Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 287.0% during the 4th quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth about $44,000. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Microsoft Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

Positive Sentiment: Microsoft reported fiscal Q4 revenue of approximately $90.0 billion, up 18% year over year and above the $87.6 billion consensus estimate. Adjusted earnings of $4.74 per share also exceeded expectations of $4.21, marking the company’s 14th consecutive “double beat.” Microsoft Q4 Earnings and Revenues Top Estimates Positive Sentiment: Azure revenue grew 43%, exceeding analysts’ expectations of roughly 40%, and the cloud platform surpassed $100 billion in annual revenue. The results eased concerns that Microsoft’s AI infrastructure investments may be outpacing customer demand. Microsoft Tops Quarterly Cloud Growth Estimates Positive Sentiment: Microsoft said Microsoft 365 Copilot reached 30 million paid seats, providing evidence of growing monetization for its AI products. The company also recorded a $3.2 billion gain from its Anthropic investment, although returns from its OpenAI investment were more mixed. Azure Crosses $100 Billion in Annual Revenue Positive Sentiment: Microsoft maintained its AI capital-expenditure outlook rather than following Alphabet’s recent increase. Investors viewed the spending discipline as supportive of margins and free cash flow, while first-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue guidance of $89.9 billion to $91.0 billion was slightly above consensus. Microsoft Keeps Capex Forecast Unchanged Neutral Sentiment: Investors had positioned for an unusually large post-earnings move, with options implying roughly a 6% to 7% swing. This elevated volatility reflects the importance of Microsoft’s results to the broader AI investment theme. Negative Sentiment: Microsoft faces a U.K. regulatory investigation into whether customers were misled about Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscription pricing. The probe creates potential reputational and compliance risks, though its near-term financial impact is unclear. UK Regulator Investigates Microsoft Over 365 Subscriptions Negative Sentiment: Disney’s decision to replace GitHub Copilot with OpenAI’s Codex highlights intensifying competition in AI coding tools. Multiple shareholder lawsuits concerning alleged Copilot and Azure disclosures also remain an overhang. Microsoft Price Performance Shares of MSFT stock opened at $390.54 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. Microsoft Corporation has a 12-month low of $349.20 and a 12-month high of $555.45. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $396.43 and a 200-day moving average of $405.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.90 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.13.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.50. The business had revenue of $90.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.94% and a net margin of 39.34%.The firm’s revenue was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.65 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be given a dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.67%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft In related news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.34, for a total transaction of $519,111.08. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 46,003 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,922,874.02. This represents a 2.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.99, for a total value of $7,145,345.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 110,477 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,928,792.23. The trade was a 12.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 23,762 shares of company stock valued at $10,508,361 over the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades MSFT has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. CLSA reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $575.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Scotiabank upgraded shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Microsoft from $650.00 to $625.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target on Microsoft from $510.00 to $480.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Forty-two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $554.73.

Check Out Our Latest Report on MSFT

Microsoft Profile (Free Report)

Microsoft Corporation is a global technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft develops, licenses and supports a broad range of software products, services and devices for consumers, enterprises and governments worldwide. Its operations span personal computing, productivity software, cloud infrastructure, enterprise applications, developer tools and gaming.

Microsoft’s product portfolio includes the Windows operating system and the Microsoft 365 suite of productivity and collaboration tools (Office apps, Outlook, Teams).

Read More Five stocks we like better than Microsoft Why SK hynix Could Be the Best AI Chip Stock to Buy Now Seagate Technology Stock Surges as Earnings Beat Silences AI Doubters Alphabet Is Down 18% From Its High After a Stellar Quarter—Overdone, or More Downside Ahead? Why Bloom Energy May Be the Most Important AI Infrastructure Stock Want to see what other hedge funds are holding MSFT? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report).

Receive News & Ratings for Microsoft Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Microsoft and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.

« PREVIOUS HEADLINEBank of New York Mellon Corp Has $19.29 Million Holdings in NBT Bancorp Inc. $NBTB

NEXT HEADLINE »Ashton Thomas Securities LLC Has $1.75 Million Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Posted by Defense World Staff on Jul 30th, 2026

First National Bank of Hutchinson decreased its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) by 11.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 15,683 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,943 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for approximately 3.7% of First National Bank of Hutchinson’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. First National Bank of Hutchinson’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $5,805,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 51.3% during the second quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Shepherd Kaplan Krochuk LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 4.9% during the 3rd quarter. Shepherd Kaplan Krochuk LLC now owns 431 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $223,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Fischer Investment Strategies LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Fischer Investment Strategies LLC now owns 697 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $337,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Pollock Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Pollock Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,805 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,453,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Better Money Decisions LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Better Money Decisions LLC now owns 3,498 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,740,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Key Microsoft News Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

Positive Sentiment: Microsoft reported fiscal Q4 revenue of approximately $90.0 billion, up 18% year over year and above the $87.6 billion consensus estimate. Adjusted earnings of $4.74 per share also exceeded expectations of $4.21, marking the company’s 14th consecutive “double beat.” Microsoft Q4 Earnings and Revenues Top Estimates Positive Sentiment: Azure revenue grew 43%, exceeding analysts’ expectations of roughly 40%, and the cloud platform surpassed $100 billion in annual revenue. The results eased concerns that Microsoft’s AI infrastructure investments may be outpacing customer demand. Microsoft Tops Quarterly Cloud Growth Estimates Positive Sentiment: Microsoft said Microsoft 365 Copilot reached 30 million paid seats, providing evidence of growing monetization for its AI products. The company also recorded a $3.2 billion gain from its Anthropic investment, although returns from its OpenAI investment were more mixed. Azure Crosses $100 Billion in Annual Revenue Positive Sentiment: Microsoft maintained its AI capital-expenditure outlook rather than following Alphabet’s recent increase. Investors viewed the spending discipline as supportive of margins and free cash flow, while first-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue guidance of $89.9 billion to $91.0 billion was slightly above consensus. Microsoft Keeps Capex Forecast Unchanged Neutral Sentiment: Investors had positioned for an unusually large post-earnings move, with options implying roughly a 6% to 7% swing. This elevated volatility reflects the importance of Microsoft’s results to the broader AI investment theme. Negative Sentiment: Microsoft faces a U.K. regulatory investigation into whether customers were misled about Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscription pricing. The probe creates potential reputational and compliance risks, though its near-term financial impact is unclear. UK Regulator Investigates Microsoft Over 365 Subscriptions Negative Sentiment: Disney’s decision to replace GitHub Copilot with OpenAI’s Codex highlights intensifying competition in AI coding tools. Multiple shareholder lawsuits concerning alleged Copilot and Azure disclosures also remain an overhang. Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft In other Microsoft news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.34, for a total value of $519,111.08. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 46,003 shares in the company, valued at $18,922,874.02. The trade was a 2.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $460.99, for a total value of $7,145,345.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 110,477 shares in the company, valued at $50,928,792.23. This represents a 12.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 23,762 shares of company stock worth $10,508,361 over the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.7% MSFT opened at $390.54 on Thursday. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $349.20 and a twelve month high of $555.45. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $396.43 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $405.74. The stock has a market cap of $2.90 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.25, a PEG ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.50. The company had revenue of $90.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.34% and a return on equity of 31.94%. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.65 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be given a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.67%.

Analyst Ratings Changes Several brokerages have recently commented on MSFT. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Microsoft to a “buy” rating and set a $485.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 13th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $515.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Scotiabank raised shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $415.00 to $400.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 25th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $646.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Forty-two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $554.73.

Get Our Latest Research Report on Microsoft

Microsoft Company Profile (Free Report)

Microsoft Corporation is a global technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft develops, licenses and supports a broad range of software products, services and devices for consumers, enterprises and governments worldwide. Its operations span personal computing, productivity software, cloud infrastructure, enterprise applications, developer tools and gaming.

Microsoft’s product portfolio includes the Windows operating system and the Microsoft 365 suite of productivity and collaboration tools (Office apps, Outlook, Teams).

Featured Articles Five stocks we like better than Microsoft Why SK hynix Could Be the Best AI Chip Stock to Buy Now Seagate Technology Stock Surges as Earnings Beat Silences AI Doubters Alphabet Is Down 18% From Its High After a Stellar Quarter—Overdone, or More Downside Ahead? Why Bloom Energy May Be the Most Important AI Infrastructure Stock Want to see what other hedge funds are holding MSFT? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report).

Receive News & Ratings for Microsoft Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Microsoft and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.

« PREVIOUS HEADLINESchneider National, Inc. $SNDR Shares Purchased by Fifth Third Bancorp

NEXT HEADLINE »Fifth Third Bancorp Grows Stake in NBT Bancorp Inc. $NBTB

Microsoft shares jumped in premarket trading while Meta tanked as investors gave differing verdicts on the two tech giants' earnings.

Shares of Microsoft were last 8% higher while Meta was down 8.5%.

On Wednesday, Microsoft posted fiscal fourth-quarter revenue that beat analyst estimates and reported 43% growth at its key Azure cloud business, which was also ahead of market expectations.

The company said that it now has over 30 million paid seats for Microsoft 365 Copilot, its AI work assistant, up from more than 20 million as of April, in further signs that parts of its AI investments are paying off.

"Microsoft's strong revenue performance, combined with accelerating Copilot adoption, signals that its $190 billion data‑center buildout is beginning to deliver returns," Tracy Woo, principal analyst at Forrester, said in a note on Wednesday.

Microsoft's stock popped even as the company reiterated its 2026 capital expenditure forecast and signaled a potential spending expansion in its 2027 fiscal year at a time when the market is jittery over the cost of AI.

The stock rose 8% higher in extended trading on Wednesday and is down around 24% this year.

Microsoft and Meta shares this year.

It was a different story for Meta. The social media giant missed investor expectations on earnings and its revenue guidance for the current quarter.

Meta said it expects revenue this quarter of between $61 billion and $64 billion, or $62.5 billion at the middle of the range. Analysts were expecting guidance of $63.15 billion, according to LSEG.

At the same time, Meta's free cash flow plunged 91% year-on-year to $784 million as it continues to spend on AI investments.

Meta's shares slid in extended trading on Wednesday and are down around 16% this year.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company is "getting a lot of offers for compute at a significant premium" over what the company paid for it. This would be a change of direction for Meta if it begins leasing out its excess computing capacity to third parties. However, there were very few details on what this business could look like.

At the same time, Zuckerberg acknowledged that the company will need to keep compute resources for itself to develop new products.

"Right now, the narrative from Mark Zuckerberg is a little light on detail and relying on what could be done in the future," Ben Barringer, head of technology research at Quilter Cheviot, said in a note on Thursday.

"Meta still has a crucial role to play in the AI world, but it is still finding its way somewhat and that is why we see both costs and revenues looking a little volatile."

— CNBC's Jonathan Vanian contributed to this report.  

Asian stocks were mixed on Thursday as investors assessed the fallout from the AI sell-off, the Federal Reserve’s rate outlook and renewed tensions in the Middle East.

The MSCI Asia-Pacific gauge excluding Japan was little changed after swinging between gains and losses.

South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.6% and was heading for a roughly 15% weekly decline, while Japan’s Nikkei rose 1.2%.

Nasdaq futures gained 0.7%, helped by Microsoft’s results, but the region’s bruised chip trade remained fragile.

Samsung Electronics reported record second-quarter revenue of 171.5 trillion won and operating profit of 89.5 trillion won, almost 19 times the level recorded a year earlier.

Its memory business benefited from higher prices, server demand and stronger sales of high-bandwidth memory used in AI systems.

The numbers offered some relief after a historic rout in South Korean equities.

Yet investors remain focused on whether extraordinary chip profits can justify the scale of planned capacity additions and AI infrastructure spending.

Portfolio managers see a panic-driven element in the recent selling, but say retail margin balances in Korea and Taiwan may need to stabilise before the market finds a durable floor.

Microsoft gave investors evidence that heavy AI expenditure can coexist with strong earnings and cash generation.

Quarterly revenue rose 18% to $90 billion, while Azure growth accelerated to 43%. Free cash flow also exceeded analysts’ estimates, helping lift the shares in extended trading.

Meta produced the opposite reaction. Its second-quarter free cash flow fell to $784 million from $8.6 billion a year earlier as spending on data centres and AI infrastructure surged.

The contrast has sharpened the market’s distinction between companies already monetising AI at scale and those asking shareholders to tolerate a longer and more expensive build-out.

The Fed held its target rate at 3.5% to 3.75% in a 9-3 vote, with three officials favouring a quarter-point increase.

Chair Kevin Warsh reiterated the commitment to price stability but offered little guidance on what would trigger the next move.

That ambiguity pushed the adjustment into longer-dated bonds.

The 30-year Treasury yield touched 5.2273%, its highest since June 2007, while futures assigned about a 60% probability to a September increase.

Brent slipped below $90 after surging more than 7% on Wednesday. Tanker traffic showed oil was still leaving the Gulf, but continuing strikes mean the geopolitical premium has not disappeared.

For Asian equities, that leaves little room for calm. AI valuations, long-term yields and energy prices are all being repriced at the same time.

For the quarter ended June 2026, Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) reported revenue of $90.01 billion, up 17.8% over the same period last year. EPS came in at $4.74, compared to $3.65 in the year-ago quarter.

The reported revenue represents a surprise of +2.93% over the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $87.44 billion. With the consensus EPS estimate being $4.21, the EPS surprise was +12.59%.

While investors scrutinize revenue and earnings changes year-over-year and how they compare with Wall Street expectations to determine their next move, some key metrics always offer a more accurate picture of a company's financial health.

As these metrics influence top- and bottom-line performance, comparing them to the year-ago numbers and what analysts estimated helps investors project a stock's price performance more accurately.

Here is how Microsoft performed in the just reported quarter in terms of the metrics most widely monitored and projected by Wall Street analysts:

Percentage Change Y/Y (GAAP)- Productivity and Business Processes: 14% versus the eight-analyst average estimate of 12.2%.Percentage Change Y/Y (GAAP)- Intelligent Cloud: 32% versus the eight-analyst average estimate of 27.6%.Percentage Change Y/Y (GAAP)- More Personal Computing: -4% versus the eight-analyst average estimate of -10.5%.Percentage Change Y/Y (GAAP)- Revenue: 18% compared to the 14.2% average estimate based on eight analysts.Revenue- More Personal Computing: $12.85 billion compared to the $12.04 billion average estimate based on eight analysts. The reported number represents a change of -4.4% year over year.Revenue- Intelligent Cloud: $39.31 billion compared to the $38.12 billion average estimate based on eight analysts. The reported number represents a change of +31.6% year over year.Revenue- Productivity and Business Processes: $37.85 billion versus the eight-analyst average estimate of $37.16 billion. The reported number represents a year-over-year change of +14.3%.Revenue by product and service offerings- Microsoft 365 Consumer products and cloud services: $2.37 billion compared to the $2.36 billion average estimate based on three analysts. The reported number represents a change of +16.4% year over year.Revenue by product and service offerings- Search and news advertising: $3.86 billion versus the three-analyst average estimate of $3.78 billion. The reported number represents a year-over-year change of +7.5%.Revenue by product and service offerings- Enterprise and partner service: $2.11 billion versus $2.11 billion estimated by three analysts on average. Compared to the year-ago quarter, this number represents a +6% change.Revenue by product and service offerings- Windows and Devices: $4.01 billion versus $3.54 billion estimated by three analysts on average. Compared to the year-ago quarter, this number represents a -7.3% change.Revenue by product and service offerings- Server products and cloud services: $37.1 billion versus the three-analyst average estimate of $36.05 billion. The reported number represents a year-over-year change of +33.1%.View all Key Company Metrics for Microsoft here>>>

Shares of Microsoft have returned +5.5% over the past month versus the Zacks S&P 500 composite's +1.9% change. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), indicating that it could perform in line with the broader market in the near term.

Microsoft is in a unique position as AI overtakes the tech industry. It’s one of the world’s largest cloud providers and software-as-a-service companies, while also holding valuable stakes in the two biggest AI labs, OpenAI and Anthropic.

Those incentives are starting to clash as Microsoft posts blockbuster financial results. The company just reported an extremely profitable quarter with $90 billion in revenue and net income of $35.8 billion. For the fiscal year, which ended June 30, Microsoft reported $331.8 billion in revenue with a net income of $133.7 billion for the year.

And CEO Satya Nadella is not about to let the trajectory of Anthropic and OpenAI — which are expanding into applications and agentic infrastructure that could ultimately let them own customer relationships — derail that kind of cash.

Nadella has been preaching to enterprises to use multiple models and to stop relying on the frontier AI labs for the agentic harness/app layer.

Doing so is dangerous, he’s been saying, because it requires companies to share too many of their internal secrets with model makers of dubious trustworthiness. He knows his customers. Enterprise IT fears both data leaks and being locked into a vendor.

Now he has openly told Wall Street analysts during the company’s quarterly conference call Wednesday that this is an opportunity for Microsoft to sell customers its own homegrown models, alongside agents, AI security and more, while promising lower costs.

In other words, he’s pitching Microsoft as an alternative to many of the upscale services that OpenAI and Anthropic are developing for their own growth.

When UBS analyst Karl Keirstead specifically asked Nadella to weigh in on the open vs. closed-sourced debate roiling the AI industry, and how Microsoft will benefit from it, Nadella came out swinging.

“The goal is to have the firm be in control of their own destiny,” the CEO said of enterprises. “We are very, very clear about the architectural sort of design of the platform, which is you got to keep your harness separate from the model … that means any model at any given time is swappable.”

Microsoft, of course, sells a menu of harnesses (aka AI agents), too, under the Copilot name, including its coding agent GitHub Copilot. Coding agents are where much of the AI dollars are being spent today.

And he used the high-profile incident from last week as proof of his warnings.

“If you look even at the Hugging Face incident, the biggest thing that we should take away from that is you can’t sort of depend on any one model,” Nadella said. “You will maybe need multiple models to even remediate some challenges that get caused by one model. Like that’s the way to think about it, right? Which is you can’t be subject to a refusal of one model.”

The incident involved an unreleased model from OpenAI breaking out of its sandbox and successfully mounting a full-scale hack on Hugging Face, all in pursuit of besting a benchmark. Trying to understand what happened, Hugging Face at first tried to use a private frontier model (which it hasn’t named) that refused to help it. So it turned to the Chinese open-source model Z.ai GLM 5.2 to analyze logs and defend its infrastructure. The incident has so shocked the industry that even Sam Altman is now saying that maybe AI development should slow down a bit.

Nadella also made clear that Microsoft is happily selling its own homegrown models, the MAI family, on its own homegrown AI chips, Maya, and pitching them as cheaper alternatives.

“Every customer wants the right model for each task based on quality, latency, cost, and compliance. We offer the broadest model catalog in the cloud with over 11,000 models, including the leads from OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, xAI, as well as our own MAI family,” he said.

He added: “We’re also accelerating our own model development. We announced more than a dozen new models across image, voice, transcription, coding, security, including our first reasoning model, MAI thinking one, all with cost-efficient inference at the core for the enterprise use cases. We are co-designing these models with our silicon, and we are seeing 40% better performance per watt when running MAI models on Maya 200.”

As for Mythos? Nadella pointed to Microsoft’s new Mythos competitor announced earlier this week, MAI Cyber One Flash. It “achieves better performance than the much larger Mythos model, but at half the cost when combined with our multi-agent security harness,” he said.

Sure, the Microsoft CEO says that enterprises should use the frontier models that OpenAI and Anthropic offer in their mix. But his bigger message is: don’t trust them enough to rely on them.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

By PYMNTS  |  July 29, 2026

 | 

Microsoft reported strong growth in its cloud and artificial intelligence businesses while also working to moderate the impact of capital expenditures.

The company said in a Wednesday (July 29) earnings release that during the quarter ended June 30, its Intelligent Cloud revenue increased 32% year over year to $39.3 billion, its Productivity and Business Processes revenue rose 14% year over year to $37.8 billion, and its More Personal Computing revenue declined 4% year over year to $12.9 billion.

Overall, Microsoft’s revenue was up 18% year over year to $90.0 billion, according to the release.

Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella said in the earnings release that customers’ confidence in Microsoft’s AI offerings was reflected by Azure revenue topping $100 billion for the first time and Microsoft 365 Copilot surpassing 30 million paid seats.

During a Wednesday earnings call, Nadella said Microsoft 365 Copilot’s net seat adds more than doubled quarter over quarter, the number of conversations per user nearly doubled year over year, and the number of customers with more than 5,000 seats increased seven times year over year.

“NHS England, for example, is rolling out Copilot to 505,000 clinicians and staff, the largest healthcare deployment of its kind, after a trial showed it saved employees an average of 43 minutes per day,” Nadella said during the call.

Microsoft’s capital expenditures increased 70% year over year to $41.0 billion during the most recent quarter, according to a fourth quarter fiscal year 2026 results presentation released Wednesday.

The presentation attributed the increase to supporting customer demand for Microsoft’s cloud and AI offerings as well as the impact of higher component prices.

Microsoft’s capital expenditures expectations for the 2026 calendar year remain unchanged at about $175 billion, while those for full year fiscal 2027 are expected to grow year over year, according to a first quarter fiscal year 2027 outlook presentation released Wednesday.

The outlook presentation said that the expectations for the 2026 calendar year include the impact of a useful life change on future lease classification.

Microsoft Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said during the earnings call that as of the start of fiscal year 2027, the company is extending the estimated useful life of its data centers and office buildings from 15 years to 25.

“The greater impact is on capital expenditures as more of our future data center leases will shift from finance leases to operating leases,” Hood said. “As a result of this update, finance leases are included in capital expenditures while operating leases are not. Outside of this useful life impact, our calendar year 2026 capex investment expectations remain unchanged. However, the shift from finance to operating leases adjusts our expectation to approximately $175 billion.”

Looking ahead, Microsoft expects its total revenue to see double-digit growth during full year fiscal 2027, according to the outlook presentation.

Microsoft cloud unit grew at the fastest pace in four years, suggesting that the company's computing infrastructure and artificial intelligence services continue to make inroads with businesses. Azure cloud-computing revenue increased 43% during the fiscal fourth quarter, the company said Wednesday in a statement.

Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) came out with quarterly earnings of $4.74 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $4.21 per share. This compares to earnings of $3.65 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items.

This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of +12.59%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this software maker would post earnings of $4.07 per share when it actually produced earnings of $4.27, delivering a surprise of +4.91%.

Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates four times.

Microsoft, which belongs to the Zacks Computer - Software industry, posted revenues of $90.01 billion for the quarter ended June 2026, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.93%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $76.44 billion. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates four times over the last four quarters.

The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call.

Microsoft shares have lost about 18.7% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 8.5%.

What's Next for Microsoft?While Microsoft has underperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock?

There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately.

Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions.

Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Microsoft was mixed. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to perform in line with the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and the current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $4.55 on $89.5 billion in revenues for the coming quarter and $19.30 on $381.6 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year.

Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Computer - Software is currently in the top 37% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.

One other stock from the same industry, ACI Worldwide (ACIW - Free Report) , is yet to report results for the quarter ended June 2026. The results are expected to be released on August 6.

This maker of software for electronic payments is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.51 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +45.7%. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has been revised 28% lower over the last 30 days to the current level.

ACI Worldwide's revenues are expected to be $429.7 million, up 7.1% from the year-ago quarter.

Live Coverage Updates appear automatically as they are published.

Live Updates Pinned 2 hours ago

Live

This live blog is being updated by Thomas Richmond, a 24/7 Wall St. contributor. You’ll get expert analysis of Microsoft’s earnings.

Simply stay on this page, and new updates will appear below automatically. We expect Microsoft to release earnings shortly after 4:10 p.m. ET.

39 minutes ago

Live

That wraps up our initial coverage of Microsoft’s Q4 results. Thank you for stopping by!

1 hour ago

Live

Microsoft’s commercial remaining performance obligation soared 84% year over year to $678 billion, giving the company extraordinary visibility into future cloud and software revenue.

The backlog is now more than twice Microsoft’s $331.84 billion in fiscal 2026 revenue. It reflects the value of contracts already signed but not yet recognized as revenue, including long-term Azure and Microsoft 365 commitments.

Microsoft 365 Copilot also surpassed 30 million paid seats. Together, the backlog and Copilot adoption suggest enterprise AI demand is moving beyond experimentation and into large-scale commercial deployments.

1 hour ago

Live

Microsoft spent $35.80 billion on property and equipment during fiscal Q4, more than double the $17.08 billion spent one year earlier. Full-year capital expenditures reached $115.95 billion, up nearly 80% from $64.55 billion in fiscal 2025.

The company still generated $55.44 billion in quarterly operating cash flow, up 30% year over year. However, subtracting property and equipment additions leaves $19.64 billion, down from roughly $25.57 billion last year.

That cash-flow pressure remains the central risk, but Azure’s 43% growth gives investors early evidence that Microsoft’s massive AI infrastructure buildout is generating a meaningful return.

1 hour ago

Live

Microsoft’s AI and cloud investments are translating into accelerating growth. Azure and other cloud services revenue increased 43% year over year during fiscal Q4, helping Intelligent Cloud revenue climb 32% to $39.31 billion.

CEO Satya Nadella revealed that Azure revenue surpassed $100 billion for the full fiscal year for the first time. Microsoft Cloud revenue reached $59.3 billion during Q4, up 27% year over year.

The results directly address concerns about Microsoft’s enormous AI spending. Azure growth exceeded the 39.6% analysts expected, helping send Microsoft shares up roughly 2% after the report.

1 hour ago

Live

Microsoft just reported fiscal Q4 earnings, with shares initially up 4% following the release. Here are the key numbers:

Revenue: $90.01 billion vs. $87.72 billion expected Adjusted EPS: $4.74 vs. $4.25 expected Operating income: $40.60 billion vs. $39.02 billion expected Cloud revenue: $59.30 billion vs. $58.71 billion expected Quick Read:

Microsoft delivered a broad beat, led by Azure and other cloud revenue growth of 43% in constant currency, well ahead of the 39.6% expected.

Intelligent Cloud revenue also reached $39.31 billion versus $38.17 billion expected, giving investors early evidence that Microsoft’s enormous AI spending is translating into stronger cloud growth.

1 hour ago

Live

Bull Case AI revenue is scaling fast: run rate hit $37B, up 123% YoY, with Azure growing 40% in Q3 FY26. Contracted backlog expanded to $627B in commercial RPO, and OpenAI committed $250B in incremental Azure spend. Polymarket assigns a 91.5% probability of a beat, and analysts carry a $557.25 target. Bear Case Capex is surging: Q3 FY26 capex reached $30.88B, up 84% YoY, pressuring FY25 free cash flow to $71.6B, down 3.3%. Last quarter shares fell 3.93% despite a beat; Q2 FY26 dropped 9.99%. OpenAI investment losses widened to $3.1B in Q1 FY26, and insiders are net sellers. Shares are down 22.63% over one year, signaling fatigue with the capex narrative. 1 hour ago

Live

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT | MSFT Price Prediction) beat EPS in all five recent quarters yet still averaged a -1.05% move after earnings. Tonight’s stock reaction will hinge on forward guidance.

Management typically guides Azure conservatively at constant currency, then beats. Last quarter, CFO Amy Hood guided Q4 Azure growth of 39% to 40%, with capacity constrained through 2026 and calendar 2026 capex framed at roughly $190 billion.

Bullish signals: FY27 Azure guide at or above 40%, capex flat-to-modestly higher, AI run rate accelerating past $37 billion, and easing capacity commentary.

Bearish signals: Azure decelerating toward mid-30s, capex sharply higher without matching RPO growth beyond $627 billion, or margin caution.

1 hour ago

Live

Microsoft trades at $395.36 intraday, hugging its 50-day moving average of $398.54 but sitting well below the 200-day at $434.79. The stock has climbed 5.46% over the past month, yet remains 18.3% lower year-to-date.

Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Microsoft didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

Immediate support sits near the 52-week low of $349.20, with the $390.34 weekly floor acting as a nearer shelf. Resistance clusters at the 200-day, then the 52-week high of $551.05.

Options positioning skews bullish: the July 31 expiry shows 82,709 call contracts against 46,594 puts, a 1.78x volume ratio, with call open interest running 2.54x puts. Aug 21 holds the heaviest call OI at 595,302 contracts, signaling institutional bets on a sustained post-earnings move.

2 hours ago

Live

Last year, Microsoft delivered EPS of $3.65 on revenue of $76.44B. Prediction markets place 63% odds cloud revenue clears $58B and 61.5% odds capex tops $44B.

Key KPIs: Azure constant-currency growth (guided 39%-40%), the $37B AI run rate, $627B RPO, and any FY27 capex color against Amy Hood’s $190B calendar 2026 framework.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares trade at $400.91, up 1.92% today. Full-chain put/call sits at 0.52. In Q2 FY26, MSFT dropped -9.99% on a beat, which serves as a warning that a beat alone might not send the stock higher. A miss on Azure or a capex step-up without accelerating RPO could trigger an outsized move.

2 hours ago

Live

Microsoft reports fiscal Q4 2026 results after the bell, with Polymarket assigning a 94.5% probability of an earnings beat. Azure growth and the company’s $37 billion AI revenue run rate will anchor the report, but capex discipline may determine the market’s reaction.

Shares have fallen 22.63% over the past year, leaving Microsoft at a forward P/E of about 21.3x. Investors now want evidence that enormous infrastructure investments can translate into stronger cloud growth and free cash flow.

Polymarket currently assigns a 50.5% probability that the combined valuation of Anthropic and OpenAI will exceed Microsoft’s market value by the end of the year. Microsoft currently has a $2.9 trillion market cap, which would make this a tough hurdle to exceed.

A clean quarter with accelerating Azure growth and disciplined capex could reset the AI return narrative.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) reports fiscal Q4 2026 results today around 4:10 PM ET. Shares trade today at $395.98, down 18.3% year to date, setting tonight as a credibility test for the hyperscaler’s overall AI capex thesis.

Momentum Meets Execution Risk Last quarter, Microsoft delivered $82.89 billion in revenue, up 18.3%, with Intelligent Cloud growing 30% and Azure accelerating 40%.

Commercial RPO jumped to $627 billion, nearly doubling year over year and reinforcing multi-year demand visibility. Yet capex surged 84.39% to $30.88 billion, narrowing the gap between infrastructure spending and reported cash flow. Reddit engagement spiked bearish on July 22-23 around Mag 7 concentration and hyperscaler capex rationality, then partially recovered into the report.

Consensus Estimates Metric Q4 FY26 Setup Prior Quarter Azure Growth (cc) 38%-44% (66.6% odds) 39% cc Microsoft Cloud Revenue Above $58B (95.5%) $54.5B Capex Above $50B (56%) $30.88B Beat Probability 94.5% Beat by 4.4% Crowd probabilities imply Azure holds a 38%+ growth cadence and cloud revenue clears $58 billion. The capex distribution signals traders bracing for a step-up above the last print.

Margins, AI Monetization, and Capex Take Center Stage Tonight, I’ll be watching whether Azure constant-currency growth holds above 40% or decelerates toward the 38%-40% band that traders assign a 34% probability to.

Investors will also focus on the AI run-rate progression beyond $37 billion and on CEO Nadella’s framing of OpenAI’s $250 billion Azure commitment. Commercial RPO conversion tempo matters more than the headline surprise.

I’ll also be listening for capex guidance. Prediction markets give 61.5% odds that quarterly capex will exceed $44 billion, so any figure below that could ease pressure on the free cash flow debate.

Operating margin discipline is another lever. Q3 delivered 45.62% operating margins alongside soaring infrastructure spend, and holding that line while depreciation ramps will define credibility.

Earnings History Quarter EPS Surprise Day-Of Move 1-Week Move 30-Day Move Q3 FY26 +4.4% -3.93% +3.19% +8.22% Q2 FY26 +5.61% -9.99% -9.19% -6.82% Q1 FY26 +12.84% -2.92% -5.45% -6.80% Q4 FY25 +8.01% +3.95% -2.37% -5.32% On average, shares moved -2.16% one week after earnings over the past year.

Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Microsoft didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

REDMOND, Wash., July 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday announced that fiscal year 2026 fourth-quarter financial results are available on its Investor Relations website. The direct link to the earnings press release is https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Investor/earnings/FY-2026-Q4/press-release-webcast.

As previously announced, the company will host a conference call at 2:30 p.m. Pacific Time. A live webcast of the call can be accessed on Microsoft's Investor Relations website at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Investor/.  

Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft) creates platforms and tools powered by AI to deliver innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers. The technology company is committed to making AI available broadly and doing so responsibly, with a mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

SOURCE Microsoft Corp.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) reported fourth-quarter financial results Wednesday after market close.

Here are the key highlights.

Microsoft reported fourth-quarter revenue of $90.01 billion, up 18% year-over-year. The revenue total beat a Street consensus estimate of $87.62 billion, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

Here’s a look at Microsoft’s revenue by reporting segment:

Productivity and Business Processes: $37.8 billion, +14% year-over-year Intelligent Cloud: $39.3 billion, +32% year-over-year More Personal Computing: $12.9 billion, -4% year-over-year Overall cloud revenue was $59.3 billion in the quarter, up 27% year-over-year. Under Intelligent Cloud, the Azure and other cloud services revenue was up 43% year-over-year.

The company reported quarterly earnings per share of $4.74, beating a Street consensus estimate of $4.24.

In the fourth quarter, Microsoft returned $10.2 billion in dividends and buybacks to shareholders.

"This year, Azure revenue surpassed $100 billion for the first time, and Microsoft 365 Copilot reached over 30 million paid seats, reflecting the confidence customers are placing in us to power their AI transformation," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said.

Microsoft’s fiscal year revenue totaled $331.8 billion, up 18% year-over-year.

The company adjusted its earnings per share and financials for 2025 and 2026 to reflect past investments in OpenAI.

What’s Next for MicrosoftThe company said it will provide forward guidance on its conference call, which can be watched below.

Microsoft Stock Price ActionMicrosoft stock is up 1.2% to $395.06 in after-hours trading Wednesday versus a 52-week trading range of $349.20 to $555.45.

Image via Shutterstock

Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

© 2026 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.

Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) reported fiscal fourth quarter results that topped Wall Street expectations on Wednesday, driven by continued strength in its cloud and artificial intelligence businesses, with shares rising about 2% in after-hours trading.

For the quarter ended June 30, Microsoft reported revenue of $90 billion, up 18% from a year earlier and ahead of analysts' expectations of about $87.6 billion.

Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share came in at $4.74, exceeding consensus estimates of approximately $4.24. On a GAAP basis, diluted earnings per share was $4.81, up 32% year over year.

Operating income increased 18% to $40.6 billion. GAAP net income rose 31% to $35.8 billion, while non-GAAP net income increased 22% to $35.3 billion.

Microsoft said several one-time items boosted quarterly earnings relative to the guidance it issued in April, providing a benefit of $0.27 per diluted share. These included a $3.2 billion gain from its investment in Anthropic and lower-than-expected expenses related to its voluntary retirement program. Those benefits were partially offset by severance expenses and impairment charges within its Xbox business.

Excluding those discrete items, Microsoft said it exceeded its expectations for revenue, operating income and diluted earnings per share.

"We are advancing the frontier on the cost-to-outcome curve, ensuring every customer can turn tokens into business results," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement. "This year, Azure revenue surpassed $100 billion for the first time, and Microsoft 365 Copilot reached over 30 million paid seats, reflecting the confidence customers are placing in us to power their AI transformation."

Microsoft CFO Amy Hood highlighted continued momentum in the company's cloud business. "We delivered a strong quarter to close out the fiscal year, highlighted by Microsoft Cloud revenue of $59.3 billion, up 27% year-over-year," Hood highlighted.

Chris Beauchamp, IG chief market analyst, noted that Microsoft "appears to be back on track." 

"A solid beat on earnings and revenue was underpinned by a 27% jump in Cloud computing revenue, and the commercial backlog remains impressive," Beauchamp said. "The shares have made gains in recent days, and these numbers would appear to reinforce the positive momentum."

Exclusive

By You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.

Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood Bloomberg/Getty Images Microsoft's latest earnings were as much about reassurance as results.

In a memo to employees after the company reported quarterly earnings, CFO Amy Hood pointed to Azure's growth and Copilot's momentum as evidence that Microsoft's biggest AI bets are paying off, even as the company spends tens of billions of dollars to keep pace in the AI race.

Microsoft shares were up 2% on Wednesday in after-hours trading following the company's earnings release, reporting $90 billion in fourth-quarter revenue, above Wall Street expectations. Hood sends these emails to employees every quarter when Microsoft discloses its financials.

"We begin this new year with clear priorities, strong customer demand, and significant opportunity ahead," Hood wrote in the memo, recapping Microsoft's fourth quarter and fiscal year. "At the same time, capturing the opportunity in front of us will require us to continue evolving, raising our ambition, and finding new ways to deliver for our customers."

The emails mostly repeat what the company reports publicly — such as how revenue and profit are growing, or what is discussed on analyst earnings calls — but they provide some insight into what Microsoft executives deem most important, and what they want employees to know.

The latest memo touted "important progress in key areas" like the company's Azure cloud business and its Copilot AI inside its suite of Microsoft 365 applications.

As Business Insider recently reported, these two important businesses have faced pressure as the generative AI boom drives soaring demand for computing capacity and fuels rapid advances by competitors. Hood's emphasis on both businesses suggests Microsoft believes it is beginning to weather those headwinds.

Hood also highlighted Microsoft invested more than $41 billion in capital expenditures during the quarter to expand data center capacity and reiterated a message Microsoft executives have emphasized for more than a year: security remains a top priority.

Read the memo:"Team,

Thank you all for a strong finish to our fiscal year.

Our Q4 results exceeded the outlook for revenue and operating income that we shared with Wall Street and we showed important progress in key areas like Azure and M365 Copilot.

You can see our earnings announcement here. Microsoft Cloud revenue was $59.3 billion in Q4 and $214 billion for the full fiscal year, growing 27% across both time periods.

Commercial bookings grew 18%, excluding OpenAI, driven by strength across our core annuity business. Commercial remaining performance obligation, which is a measure of the business we already have under contract, increased to $678 billion, up over $50 billion sequentially.

Thank you for staying focused on security, quality, and reliability. The trust customers place in us to power their most important workloads is earned every day through the work you do.

A few other key points from the quarter:

We generated $19.6 billion in free cash flow, highlighting the strength of our business and the flexibility it creates.We invested over $41 billion in capex to support the demand we continue to see. A big thank you to our infrastructure teams for bringing new capacity online and to our engineering teams for creating efficiencies that enable us to do more with every gigawatt we deploy.Azure and other cloud services revenue growth accelerated to 43%. And for FY26, Azure surpassed $100 billion in revenue, up 41%.Microsoft 365 commercial cloud revenue increased 16% on an adjusted basis, ahead of expectations. Building on the Copilot momentum we saw in Q3, net paid seat adds more than doubled sequentially and are now over 30 million.Microsoft 365 consumer cloud revenue increased 24% with subscriber growth of 7%.Search advertising revenue ex-TAC increased 10%, and Bing and Edge both took share again this year.Windows OEM and Devices revenue decreased 7%, which is higher than overall PC market demand, as our OEM and channel partners continued to build inventory in response to higher component prices.XBOX content and services revenue decreased 10%, against a prior-year quarter that benefited from strong first-party content. During the quarter, Forza Horizon 6 saw strong player reception, reaching a record 6 million players in its first two days.And, LinkedIn revenue increased 12% primarily driven by Marketing Solutions.Before we turn the final page on FY26, I want to recognize what we accomplished together. It was a year of meaningful progress as we expanded capacity, improved our product quality, evolved business models, and changed how we operate thru new rhythms like cohorts and missions. We built momentum throughout the year and delivered our strongest execution and operating performance in the final quarter of the year. Most importantly, we remained grounded that our own success at Microsoft will not come unless we continue to create meaningful value for our customers and help them accelerate their own growth.

Thank you to teams across the company for the focus, discipline, and commitment you brought every day. From quality, security, and compliance to the countless decisions that improved how we serve customers, your work made an impact. The results we delivered in FY26 and the momentum we carry into FY27 are a direct reflection of your efforts.

We begin this new year with clear priorities, strong customer demand, and significant opportunity ahead. At the same time, capturing the opportunity in front of us will require us to continue evolving, raising our ambition, and finding new ways to deliver for our customers. I'm confident in what we can achieve together and excited for what comes next.

To hear more details about the quarter and our outlook for Q1, you can join live today at 2:30PM Pacific Time, listen on-demand, or read the transcript on the Investor Relations website.

With appreciation and gratitude,

Amy"

Read next

Ashley Stewart You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.

Microsoft Artificial Intelligence Cloud Computing More Enterprise Software Exclusive

Rishi Jaluria, RBC Capital Markets managing director, software equity research, calls Microsoft's fourth-quarter earnings report "fantastic" and expects very high growth in capital expenditures next year. He speaks on "Bloomberg The Close.

Microsoft (MSFT), a software and cloud-computing company operating the Azure platform, rose approximately 0.5% in Wednesday's regular-session trading as of 11:1

The AI narrative has moved beyond speculative software to capital-intensive physical infrastructure. With the infrastructure race in full swing, hyperscalers are increasingly investing in the buildout of the compute capacity required to train and operate the next generation of AI models. As capital expenditures into AI infrastructure continue to compress cash flows, investors are increasingly demanding results from hyperscalers this earnings season. 

Key Takeaways Microsoft and Meta report earnings after the market close on July 29, with Microsoft projected to deliver 16.44% EPS growth, while Meta’s EPS growth is expected to remain flat. Tech heavy ETFs such as the ALPS O’Shares Global Internet Giants ETF (OGIG) maintain significant exposure to the big four hyperscalers — Microsoft, Meta, Google, and Amazon — making these funds highly sensitive to their performance. Following a 4.24% after-hours decline in Alphabet stock due to increased capex guidance in Q2 earnings, immense pressure is on Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon to prove, in their upcoming earnings reports, that their massive AI infrastructure investments will deliver tangible, near-term returns. Hyperscaler Exposure in ETFs As investor concerns over AI capex mount across mega-cap tech, the ALPS O’Shares Global Internet Giants ETF (OGIG) finds itself right in the crosshairs. OGIG, which tracks high-growth global internet leaders, holds massive concentrated exposure to the key AI infrastructure spenders. With the funds top two holdings, Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta (META), set to report earnings after the closing bell today, OGIG stands at a critical inflection point. 

The performance of the recently launched Defiance AI Hyperscale Leader ETF (AIHY) will also depend heavily on second quarter earnings results, with the big four hyperscalers, Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL), and Amazon (AMZN), accounting for nearly 80% of the fund’s holdings. 

Additionally, hyperscalers represent large allocations in large-cap indexes such as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100. In the State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF (SPYM), the top four hyperscalers account for over 15% of portfolio allocations. Within the Invesco QQQ Trust Series I (QQQ), tracking the Nasdaq-100 index, the big four hyperscalers comprise over 18% of the total portfolio weight. 

Google Capex Under Fire Hyperscalers have seen increasing investor scrutiny regarding AI capex. Alphabet fell 4.24% in after-hours trading following guidance that the company would raise its full-year spending plan by an additional $15 billion, despite beating Wall Street expectations on top and bottom lines. 

For the second quarter, Alphabet reported EPS of $9.11 and revenue of $119.8 billion, beating analyst expectations of $2.95 and $116.9 billion respectively, according to Yahoo Finance. The company raised its anticipated capex for the year to $195 billion to $205 billion, up from prior estimates of $180 billion to $190 billion, with management signaling spending will increase significantly into 2027. With Alphabet facing declines as a result of higher spending, immense pressure is on upcoming reports from Microsoft and Meta to prove their surging capital investments can deliver near-term returns.

Big Tech’s Spending Test Microsoft announced last quarter expected capex for the year of approximately $190 billion as the company races to build data centers. Wall Street now expects spending to grow 20% to 30% this quarter, raising expected full year capex to near $220 billion, according to Yahoo Finance. As investors become increasingly skeptical of these investments, Microsoft will have to deliver strong Azure cloud growth and Copilot adoption to calm concerns over elevated spending. 

The company is expected to announce EPS of $4.25 and revenue of $87.7 billion. These numbers reflect anticipated EPS growth of 16.44% and revenue growth of 14.79% year-over-year. Microsoft was down roughly 17% at the start of the year, making this earnings release a critical moment for the company to prove its fundamental strength and restore investor confidence. 

Simultaneously, Meta is set to announce second quarter earnings. Wall Street expects Meta to report EPS of $7.14 on revenue of $60.23 billion, according to Bloomberg analyst consensus estimates. These numbers would represent flat EPS growth and revenue growth of 26.77%, compared to the same period last year. In Q1, Meta announced full year capex guidance of $125 to $145 billion. 

Now that Alphabet has significantly raised its full year spending expectations, investors are increasingly anticipating that an increase in forward capex guidance could be on the table for Meta, according to Yahoo Finance. Meta has faced nine straight days of declines, marking the longest losing streak in the stocks history, and bringing the company’s year to date return down to -9.48%. 

Amazon’s Turn in the Spotlight On Thursday, just one day after Meta and Microsoft announce earnings, Amazon will report second quarter results. Analyst consensus expects Amazon to deliver EPS of $1.82 and revenue of approximately $195.9 billion, marking EPS growth of 8.33% and revenue growth of 17.41% from the same period last year. Amazon currently plans to spend approximately $200 billion in capex in 2026, with many investors expecting this number could go higher next earnings. 

For more news, information, and strategy, visit the ETF Building Blocks Content Hub.

VettaFi LLC (“VettaFi”) is the index provider for OGIG, for which it receives an index licensing fee. However, OGIG is not issued, sponsored, endorsed, or sold by VettaFi, and VettaFi has no obligation or liability in connection with the issuance, administration, marketing, or trading of OGIG.

Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) reports fiscal fourth-quarter results tonight, with analysts largely centering their attention on capital expenditures as the company continues its aggressive buildout of AI infrastructure.

Bank of America analysts said "AI execution remains the central debate" heading into the print, with Azure growth, AI infrastructure spending, and Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption expected to dominate the conversation.

The bank estimates Q4 capital expenditures, including finance leases, will total about $42 billion, up 32% from the prior quarter and 74% from a year earlier.

Analysts said the higher spending is likely to pressure free cash flow in the near term, and that Azure growth at or above management's guided 39% to 40% range is likely needed to support the stock. A weaker result, they added, could raise concerns about returns on AI investments.

UBS took a more balanced tactical stance ahead of the release, citing expectations for higher capital spending alongside steady cloud demand. The firm raised its fiscal 2027 capital expenditure estimate to $261 billion from $234 billion, pointing to continued demand from model training workloads and memory cost inflation.

UBS noted that investors are increasingly focused on AI infrastructure spending following recent market reactions to results from Oracle and Alphabet's Google.

UBS estimates that investor expectations for fiscal 2027 capital expenditures already sit in the $255 billion to $260 billion range, which the firm said "mitigates the downside risk even if AI capex were to rise and the H2 Azure guide was reaffirmed (not raised)."

With both firms pointing to elevated capital spending as the dominant theme heading into the print, tonight's results will offer investors a clearer read on whether Microsoft's AI bet is translating into the growth needed to justify the outlay. Azure's performance against its guided range, along with any updated commentary on fiscal 2027 spending plans, is likely to set the tone for how the market weighs the company's AI strategy in the months ahead.

Shares of Microsoft traded 0.5% above opening levels on Wednesday morning.

MSFT stock is moving ahead of earnings. See the chart and price action here.  S3 also flagged that almost no short covering has occurred heading into the report, meaning bearish traders are staying put rather than trimming positions before Wednesday’s after-the-bell release.

The stock has struggled regardless, off more than 18% for the year overall and trailing the S&P 500 by roughly 25 percentage points. 

Experts Weigh InMicrosoft itself set the stage for that worry in April, when it guided to roughly $190 billion in capital expenditures and finance leases for the year — including about $25 billion tied to pricier components as AI chip demand squeezed memory supply. 

Not everyone is convinced the AI bet is souring. Citizens’ Patrick Walravens argues CEO Satya Nadella‘s “AI sovereignty” push and steady leadership justify a premium valuation, citing a total addressable market he sizes at $5.1 trillion by 2030. Citizens has the stock as Market Outperform with a $550 target.

Guggenheim Partners’ John DiFucci sees Azure growth of 39% to 40% year-over-year, cushioning softer Windows results. Guggenheim has the stock as Buy with a $586 target.

The tension between that bull case and the market’s record short bet sets up Wednesday’s report from Microsoft as one of the most closely watched of earnings season.

MSFT Stock Price Activity: Microsoft shares were up 0.33% at $394.67 at the time of publication on Wednesday, according to Benzinga Pro.

Photo: HJBC / Shutterstock

This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

© 2026 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.

LOS ANGELES, July 29, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Law Offices of Frank R. Cruz reminds investors that class action lawsuits have been filed on behalf of shareholders of the following publicly-traded companies. Investors have until the deadlines listed below to file a lead plaintiff motion.

Investors suffering losses on their investments are encouraged to contact The Law Offices of Frank R. Cruz to discuss their legal rights in these class actions at 310-914-5007 or by email to [email protected].

Nano-X Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ: NNOX)
Class Period: March 31, 2025 – April 17, 2026
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: August 11, 2026

The complaint filed in this class action alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants failed to disclose to investors that: (1) Defendants overstated purported efficiency gains achieved in Nano-X’s operations, as well as the purported increased demand for its products; (2) in reality, Nano-X’s production and manufacturing operations were poorly aligned with demand for the Company’s products; (3) as a result, Nano-X was experiencing significantly increased operating expenses and cash burn; (4) the foregoing significantly increased the likelihood that Nano-X would be forced to take disruptive remedial measures with respect to its manufacturing operations, entailing significant restructuring and impairment charges; and (5) as a result, Defendants’ positive statements about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times.

If you are a Nano-X shareholder who suffered a loss, click here to participate.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT)
Class Period: May 1, 2025 – January 28, 2026
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: August 11, 2026

The complaint filed in this class action alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants failed to disclose to investors: (1) that Microsoft’s Copilot family of products had experienced significant brand positioning, user experience, usage, data siloing, computational capacity, organizational, and interoperability problems; (2) that Microsoft’s flagship proprietary AI model ranked well below competitors on a number of benchmark tests; (3) that Microsoft needed to increase by billions of dollars its capital expenditures and divert GPU and CPU capacity away from fulfilling demand for its profitable Azure services in order to improve the competitive positioning of its critical Copilot family of products and increase its AI-related R&D; (4) that, as a result of the foregoing, Microsoft had failed to convert a significant percentage of its commercial Microsoft 365 users to paid Copilot subscriptions and the Company’s Copilot offerings had lost market share to rival products, a trend that was increasing; and (5) as a result, Defendants’ positive statements about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times.

If you are a Microsoft shareholder who suffered a loss, click here to participate.

Embecta Corp. (NASDAQ: EMBC)
Class Period: November 25, 2025 – May 4, 2026
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: August 17, 2026

The complaint filed in this class action alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants failed to disclose to investors that: (1) the Company’s guidance was misleading and unattainable; (2) segment weakness, especially in the United States pen needle market, was likely to disrupt the Company’s original revenue guidance and second quarter 2026 results; and (3) as a result, Defendants’ positive statements about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times.

If you are an Embecta shareholder who suffered a loss, click here to participate.

Black Rock Coffee Bar, Inc. (NASDAQ: BRCB)
Class Period: September 12, 2025 – May 12, 2026
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: August 17, 2026

The complaint filed in this class action alleges that in the Registration Statement and throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants failed to disclose to investors: (1) Black Rock Coffee’s new store openings were leading to a cannibalization of its existing services and revenue; (2) Black Rock Coffee overstated the manner in which its expansion strategy was tailored to avoid “sales transfer”; (3) as a result of “sales transfer,” the Company’s financial results were materially impacted; and (4) that, as a result of the foregoing, Defendants’ positive statements about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.

If you are a Black Rock Coffee shareholder who suffered a loss, click here to participate.

Follow us for updates on Twitter: twitter.com/FRC_LAW.

To be a member of these class actions, you need not take any action at this time; you may retain counsel of your choice or take no action and remain an absent member of the class action. If you wish to learn more about these class actions, or if you have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Frank R. Cruz, of The Law Offices of Frank R. Cruz, 1999 Avenue of the Stars, Suite 1100, Los Angeles, California 90067 at 310-914-5007, by email to [email protected], or visit our website at www.frankcruzlaw.com. If you inquire by email please include your mailing address, telephone number, and number of shares purchased.

This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.

Contacts

The Law Offices of Frank R. Cruz, Los Angeles
Frank R. Cruz, 310-914-5007
[email protected]
www.frankcruzlaw.com

© Rawat Yapathanasap / Shutterstock.com

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT | MSFT Price Prediction) has quietly become the most important AI infrastructure company on the planet, yet the stock is acting like nobody noticed.

Shares are down 20.72% year to date at $381.70, even as CEO Satya Nadella just disclosed an AI business running at a $37 billion annual pace, up 123% year over year. That disconnect is exactly why I want to answer this question: can Microsoft reach $900 by 2030? Here is the path.

Why Microsoft Shares Are Stuck Despite Record AI Growth The story holding this stock down is CapEx, not demand. Microsoft is spending roughly $190 billion in calendar 2026 on infrastructure, and the market worries returns will lag the outlay. That fear has punished the stock.

Shares are off 3.08% in the last week and down 24.69% over the past year, though the last month has firmed up with a 4.44% bounce. With a beta of 1.13, MSFT typically trades with modest volatility, so the drawdown reflects a real narrative problem. Even earnings beats have not helped: the average day-of reaction to the last five reports was negative 1.05%, a textbook sell-the-news pattern.

Wall Street Sees 46% Upside. I Think They Are Underestimating This The Street is bullish. 54 of 57 analysts rate MSFT a Buy or Strong Buy, with a consensus target of $556.75 and just 3 Hold ratings and zero Sells. Our base case model lands at $493.67 with 90% confidence, implying 29.34% upside, with a bull case of $600.23 and bear case of $439.85. Consensus is a 12-month target.

For 2030, the base case walks to $752.17 by July 2030 and the five-year bull case hits $1,082.60 by 2031. With 95% bullish analyst sentiment and 23.4% YoY quarterly earnings growth, the multi-year picture is stronger than the near-term target suggests.

The Path to $900 Per Share by 2030 Reaching $900 from today’s price of $381.70 would require a gain of 135.8%. With forward EPS of $18.89, a price of $900 implies a forward P/E of 48x. Our base case of $493.67 already implies 24x, meaning the bold target requires additional multiple expansion on today’s forward earnings.

Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Microsoft didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

That sounds absurd until you realize we are pricing a 2030 outcome on 2027 EPS. If Microsoft compounds earnings at the mid-teens rate management is guiding toward, the same $900 print becomes a low-30s multiple by decade-end.

Three catalysts do the heavy lifting: Commercial RPO of $627 billion, up 99%; Microsoft 365 Copilot paid seats over 20 million, up 250%; and Nadella’s framing that “we are at the beginning of one of the most consequential platform shifts that will change the entire tech stack as agents proliferate.” The primary risk is that AI CapEx returns arrive slower than the depreciation clock demands.

Where Microsoft Trades Today vs Its Earnings Power Microsoft trades at a forward P/E of 20x against TTM EPS of $16.79. That is cheap for a business growing operating income in the low-20s and posting 46.3% operating margins.

Shares sit just above the 52-week low of $349.20 and well below the high of $551.05. Over the past decade, MSFT has returned 660.61%. The current setup looks like a valuation reset inside a still-intact secular growth story.

Is $900 Realistic? Here Is My Verdict Reaching $900 by 2030 requires a 135.8% gain from here. That is a stretch, but not a fantasy.

Three things need to go right: Azure needs to hold the 39% to 40% constant-currency growth range management just guided; Copilot monetization has to scale from 20 million seats into the hyperscale range implied by RPO; and CapEx intensity has to normalize so free cash flow expands sharply post-2027. A sustained AI-return recession would derail it. We’ve outlined the blueprint for how Microsoft could reach $900 in 2030.

Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Microsoft didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Bryn Mawr Trust Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) by 1.2% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 177,696 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,181 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 3.2% of Bryn Mawr Trust Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Bryn Mawr Trust Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $65,778,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $50,664,631,000. Auto Owners Insurance Co increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 56,160.8% in the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 60,116,384 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $29,073,486,000 after purchasing an additional 60,009,531 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the first quarter worth approximately $18,733,827,000. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 500.0% in the third quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 59,543,261 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $30,840,432,000 after purchasing an additional 49,618,571 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 49,640.3% during the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 29,967,038 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $14,905,904,000 after purchasing an additional 29,906,791 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets Several research firms have weighed in on MSFT. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $525.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $480.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. BNP Paribas Exane lowered their price target on shares of Microsoft from $556.00 to $555.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 1st. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $415.00 to $400.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 25th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Forty-two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $554.73.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on Microsoft

Microsoft Price Performance NASDAQ MSFT opened at $393.35 on Wednesday. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $349.20 and a fifty-two week high of $555.45. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $397.04 and its two-hundred day moving average is $406.36. The firm has a market cap of $2.92 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.27.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.06 by $0.21. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.94% and a net margin of 39.34%.The company had revenue of $82.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $81.44 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.46 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 20th will be issued a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 20th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 21.67%.

Insiders Place Their Bets In other news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.34, for a total value of $519,111.08. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 46,003 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,922,874.02. The trade was a 2.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.99, for a total transaction of $7,145,345.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 110,477 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,928,792.23. This represents a 12.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 23,762 shares of company stock valued at $10,508,361 over the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Microsoft News Summary Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

Positive Sentiment: Microsoft unveiled its first in-house cybersecurity AI model, MAI-Cyber-1-Flash, along with Project Perception, an agentic platform designed to detect and respond to AI-powered attacks. The products could strengthen Microsoft’s enterprise security position and create additional demand for Azure and security services. Microsoft launches AI cybersecurity model and defense platform Positive Sentiment: Analysts remained bullish ahead of earnings. Citizens JMP reaffirmed a Market Outperform rating with a $550 target, while Piper Sandler maintained an Overweight rating and a $540 target—well above Microsoft’s recent trading range. Microsoft stock moves higher Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s expanding partnerships and integrations across Azure, Dynamics 365 and Microsoft 365 Copilot support the argument that its broad enterprise ecosystem can monetize AI spending over time. Morgan Stanley estimates major technology companies could achieve 25%–50% returns on AI investments. AI capital expenditure plans Microsoft Company Profile (Free Report)

Microsoft Corporation is a global technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft develops, licenses and supports a broad range of software products, services and devices for consumers, enterprises and governments worldwide. Its operations span personal computing, productivity software, cloud infrastructure, enterprise applications, developer tools and gaming.

Microsoft’s product portfolio includes the Windows operating system and the Microsoft 365 suite of productivity and collaboration tools (Office apps, Outlook, Teams).

Further Reading Five stocks we like better than Microsoft These 3 Stocks Have Soared in 2026—Can They Keep Climbing? Hasbro’s Earnings Beat Shows Why This Is No Longer Just a Toy Story Rambus: Another AI Phoenix Ready to Rise From the Ashes of Correction Chips & Clips: Memory Tariffs Rewire Tech Supply Chains

Receive News & Ratings for Microsoft Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Microsoft and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.