Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Sven Hoppe/picture alliance via Getty Images Meta's message to investors: The AI spending will continue until returns improve.
Investors' response: No thanks.
AI spend was the big focus during Meta's Q2 earnings report. And the pitch wasn't convincing enough to stop an after-hours selloff.
Meta was happy to credit AI with helping its advertising business (its bread and butter) rise 27%. And it wasn't just pure growth. Ad impressions grew 14%, while the average price per ad climbed 12%.
There's just one catch. Meta is still spending an incredible amount — $31.1 billion, roughly double what it spent last year — on its AI bets. That's eating up a significant portion of its free cash flow, which went from $8.55 BILLION to $784 MILLION. One analyst said the AI strategy is like "throwing spaghetti at the wall."
Investors were unimpressed, with Meta's stock falling nearly 10% at one point after the bell.
Compare that to another tech giant that reported yesterday: Microsoft. It logged wins in Azure and Microsoft 365 Copilot, which Microsoft CFO Amy Hood touted in her quarterly memo to employees viewed by BI's Ashley Stewart. Perhaps more importantly, its AI budget forecast didn't budge.
Investors noticed. Microsoft's stock jumped almost 8% in after-hours trading.
The difference between the two is clear: AI spending is fine … as long as there is a direct and measurable return.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the case for why Meta's AI bets might need more time.
A lot of the most immediate use cases for AI are for developers. Just look at the boom in vibe coding. "Building for consumers is a little bit different," Zuckerberg said during Wednesday's earnings call, but it's also a "massive market opportunity."
And who better to serve that market than the king of all social networks? Between Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads, Meta has billions of users across its platforms. Zuckerberg said Meta's making a big bet on AI agents.
That all tracks with one small exception: A lot of Americans are really nervous about AI.
Meta has tried to ease those fears with a big AI PR push, including a Zuckerberg op-ed and some interviews with reporters. (The request to speak to BI Today must have got caught in my spam inbox. I'm happy to chat, Mark. Sounds like you have a really cool gym.)
BI's Peter Kafka has an idea about how Meta could better convince people to get on board with AI. (Hint: It's green.)
Whatever the plan is, Meta had better figure something out fast. Investors are running out of patience.
Dan DeFrancesco You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.
Dan is the lead writer for BI Today, Business Insider's flagship daily newsletter. Dan often interviews executives about everything from AI's impact on capitalism to robotics to the potential SaaSpocalypse as part of his work on the newsletter.Dan was an editor and reporter at BI, covering financial technology and market structure.His previous work includes everything from inside Robinhood's failed "Checking and Savings" product that eventually led to Congress getting involved to the internal arguments over JPMorgan's failed attempt to launch a finance app for millennials.Before joining Business Insider, Dan wrote about risk management in derivatives markets for Risk.net and fintech for WatersTechnology. He initially covered local sports for The Journal News, a daily newspaper serving the lower Hudson Valley. Got a tip? Contact this editor via email at [email protected].
SummaryMicrosoft Q2 demonstrated robust fundamentals with 18% TTM revenue growth and strong 26% UFCF margins, despite rising capex.MSFT’s rapidly expanding order book (RPO +84% YoY, >2x TTM revenue) reduces the risk of near-term revenue misses.We rate MSFT at Accumulate within the $386–430 range, with a technical price target of $470 and a stop-loss below $386.We believe valuation to be neither cheap nor expensive and that technicals and institutional accumulation support further upside, with potential for $490 before meaningful weakness.Looking for a helping hand in the market? Members of Growth Investor Pro get exclusive ideas and guidance to navigate any climate. Learn More »DISCLAIMER: This note is intended for U.S. recipients only and, in particular, is not directed at, nor intended to be relied upon by, any UK recipients. Nothing in this note is intended to be investment advice, nor should it be relied
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Yesterday, both Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Meta Platforms, Inc. (Nasdaq: META) reported their most recent quarterly results. The companies are not only two of America's biggest tech giants but also among the most significant players in the AI space.
BELLEVUE, WA - NOVEMBER 28: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella smiles during the question and answer portion of the Microsoft Annual Shareholders Meeting at the Meydenbauer Center on November 28, 2018 in Bellevue, Washington. Microsoft recently surpassed Apple, Inc. to become the world's most valuable publicly traded company. (Photo by Stephen Brashear/Getty Images)
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Microsoft and Meta both poured billions into AI this quarter, but only one turned that spending into paying customers. Reporting earnings minutes apart on July 29, Microsoft’s stock jumped 9.8% while Meta’s fell 10% — a split driven by Microsoft’s ability to show external demand for its AI infrastructure and Meta’s reliance on still‑theoretical plans.
Their earnings reports both featured rising revenue. But Microsoft outperformed Meta on earnings, free cash flow, outlook and — most importantly – the business model behind their AI spending.
Microsoft has a rapidly growing AI cloud business; whereas Meta aspires to create one and operates a virtual reality business that posted “$4.6 billion in second-quarter operating losses while bringing in $431 million in sales,” according to CNBC.
Analysts estimate Microsoft stock has more upside — 42% based on the consensus 12-month price target compared with Meta’s 35%. Wednesday’s reports suggest Microsoft has the edge due to its rapidly growing Azure business, which grew 43% and is forecast to expand faster.
Meta has plans for an AI cloud business and declined to offer 2027 capital expenditure guidance — which could spook investors.
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Microsoft’s Results Show Real AI DemandMicrosoft outperformed Meta in the latest quarter.
The software giant grew revenue, beat earnings expectations and forecast better-than-anticipated growth and cash flow.
Specifically, Microsoft ended June 2026 with revenue up 18% to $90 billion; adjusted earnings per share of $4.74 — 50 cents above consensus; 43% Azure growth that crossed $100 billion in annual revenue; an 84% rise in backlog to $678 billion; and $19.6 billion in free cash flow (though that was down 23%), noted a company release.
Guidance for the current quarter exceeded expectations. Microsoft CFO Amy Hood guided fiscal Q1 revenue to a midpoint of $90.4 billion — $740 million above the Street estimate — while the Q1 Azure growth target of 45% was four percentage points faster than consensus, reported CNBC.
By changing accounting assumptions, Microsoft lowered its 2026 capital expenditures 8% to $175 billion. Capex stays above $50 billion next quarter, and Hood said Microsoft expects to remain free-cash-flow positive in fiscal 2027, noted CNBC.
Meta’s Growth Comes With Margin PressureMeta beat revenue expectations while falling short in other areas. Specifically, Meta’s revenue rose 28% to $60.8 billion; its earnings per share of $6.18 was $1.02 below consensus; operating margin declined 12 percentage points to 31%; and free cash flow dropped 81% to $784 million, noted CNBC.
Meta’s guidance came in below expectations. The Facebook parent lowered revenue guidance for Q3 to $62.5 billion — the midpoint of a range — missing consensus by $700 million; raised the low end of its 2026 expense guidance by $4 billion to $169 billion; and cut its capex forecast for the year by 10% to $145 billion. CFO Susan Li declined to quantify 2027 capital spending at all, according to a company release.
Why Their Stocks Moved In Opposite DirectionsDigging into Meta’s margin miss reveals why the stock plunged. Meta’s lower margins stemmed from a 55% increase in expenses on 28% revenue growth — by contrast, Microsoft’s operating income grew 18%, exactly in line with its revenue.
Since Microsoft rents its AI capacity to third parties, its AI-related spending shows up as Azure growth of 43% and a $678 billion backlog. Meta consumes its own capacity, so the same spend appears only as depreciation — up 46% to $6.4 billion — charged against advertising, with no external revenue to offset it.
Zuckerberg — who famously changed the name of his company from Facebook to Meta Platforms on hopes for the virtual reality business, which has lost more than $80 billion since inception — confirmed cloud plans without specifics.
This strategy drew skepticism from analysts. Although Meta expects “significantly higher margin on selling intelligence rather than selling compute directly,” JPMorgan’s Douglas Anmuth pressed Meta management to explain the contradiction of Meta becoming both buyer and seller of AI computing.
In a nutshell, Microsoft stock rose because companies pay for its AI computing service. Meta’s dropped because the company aspires to build and operate one with contracted external payers.
Where Microsoft And Meta Could Be In A YearMicrosoft stock is expected to rise more than Meta’s.
The bull case for Microsoft is abetted by Azure growth; a large backlog; 30 million Copilot seats worth $9 billion; a stock trading 29% below its 52-week high; a 23-times trailing earnings stock value; and capex that is largely presold to customers.
Bears point to Microsoft’s $50 billion in quarterly capex, which exceeds free cash flow; the disconnect between unchanged spending and lower depreciation due to changed assumptions; shrinking Windows and Xbox businesses; and a contentious relationship with OpenAI — 27% of whose for-profit arm the software giant owns, according to the Journal.
While Meta bulls rejoice in 28% revenue growth, 3.6 billion daily users and a 12% increase in ad pricing, bears see cash flow near zero; capex funded by bonds; buybacks stopped; depreciation compounding; no 2027 capex forecast; and youth-harm litigation that the company warns could produce further material losses, per the company statement.
As an investor, do you require AI buildout to have a paying external customer before you fund it? If the answer is yes, Microsoft now has evidence while Meta may deliver it in the future — or not.
Along with producing a 9.82% extended-session stock upsurge from $390.54 to $428.91, Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) latest earnings report led to a veritable deluge of analyst rating and price target upgrades.
Furthermore, among more than a dozen notes, only one positioned MSFT shares as a ‘Hold.’ Still, even the comparatively bearish assessment by Stifel Nicolaus’ Brad Reback came with a stock price forecast lift from $400 to $450.
On the other end of the spectrum, Rishi Jaluria of RBC Capital assessed that Microsoft shares are headed toward $640 in the coming 12 months, while Bernstein’s Mark Moerdler dropped the old $646 price target in favor of the new $647.
Both of the bullish analysts also issued positive recommendations for MSFT stock, much like the vast majority of their peers.
Overall, and following the latest string of notes, Microsoft is considered a ‘Strong Buy’ on Wall Street and expected to rally 42.44% to $556.29 on average by analysts, per the data Finbold retrieved from TipRanks on July 30.
Wall Street sets Microsoft stock price target for the next 12 months. Source: TipRanks Why Microsoft stock is seen as a ‘Strong Buy’ on Wall Street Meanwhile, the Thursday morning positivity can be linked directly to the blue-chip technology giant’s latest earnings report. Specifically, Microsoft reported $90.01 billion in revenue and earnings per share (EPS) of $4.74.
Forecasts called for $4.24 EPS and $87.62 billion in sales, meaning the big tech company managed a double beat.
Additionally, Azure cloud growth accelerated to 43% – faster than the predicted 40% – reinforcing the positivity, and investors appear to have remained unfazed concerning capital expenditures (CapEx), in stark contrast to Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) filing made a week before and Meta’s (NASDAQ: META) presentation made public on Wednesday afternoon.
Investors react to latest Microsoft earnings report Indeed, after dropping 17.42% between January 2 – the first regular session of the year – and the closing bell on July 29, Microsoft stock suddenly soared 9.82% to its press time price of $428.91.
Microsoft stock price YTD chart. Source: TipRanks The move might present a turning point for the embattled technology giant, and it decreased the year-to-date (YTD) market capitalization loss to roughly $500 billion, down from $750 billion.
Featured image via Shutterstock
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Stock futures are pointing to a higher open for major indexes after yesterday's massive sell-off. ; the U.S. and Iran are trading strikes again as hopes for new peace talks have fallen apart; the Fed's preferred gauge of inflation is expected to show that price increases slowed last month; shares of Meta and Microsoft are making big moves after their latest earnings reports, just in opposite directions; and Apple and Amazon are set release their quarterly results after the closing bell.
Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of MSFT, GOOG, AMZN either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. 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.
Shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT | MSFT Price Prediction) are up 9% in early Thursday trading, changing hands at $427 after the software giant delivered a fiscal fourth-quarter blowout and crossed a symbolic Azure milestone. The pop lifts the stock off Wednesday’s $390.54 close and pushes it back toward levels last seen in the spring.
As of yesterday’s close, Microsoft stock was down 19% year to date (YTD), so this reads more like a relief rally in a beaten-down mega-cap than a fresh breakout. The move follows Wednesday afternoon’s earnings release, and it’s driving strength across AI-linked names.
Investors are digesting what the earnings report says about cloud capex, Copilot monetization, and the broader mega-cap earnings setup heading into Amazon’s report. That framing sets up the rest of the reaction across the AI complex.
Azure Tops $100B and Q4 Blows Past Estimates Microsoft posted fiscal Q4 2026 revenue of $90 billion, up 18%, ahead of the $87.62 billion consensus. Microsoft’s diluted earnings per share landed at $4.81, up 32%, or $4.74 excluding a gain tied to the OpenAI investment.
The centerpiece was Azure. Growth accelerated to 43% from 40% the prior quarter, and Azure crossed $100 billion in revenue for the full fiscal year for the first time. Microsoft Cloud revenue reached $59.3 billion, up 27%, and commercial remaining performance obligations jumped 84% to $678 billion. Management also disclosed more than 30 million paid Copilot seats.
The bigger relief was on spending. Microsoft’s capital expenditures including leases came in at $41 billion, below the $42 billion feared. CFO Amy Hood stated that capex will grow further in fiscal 2027 while the company stays free-cash-flow positive, and Microsoft is extending the useful life of office and data center buildings to 25 years from 15. Microsoft’s fiscal Q1 2027 revenue guidance of $89.85 billion to $90.95 billion also topped Street models.
Analysts Lift Most Microsoft Price Targets Sell-side reactions skewed positive, if not unanimous. Citi raised its Microsoft stock price target to $600 from $570, keeping a Buy and calling the report a “solid rebuttal to the bear case.” Wells Fargo lifted its target to $650 from $625, while Bernstein nudged its target to $647 from $646, both at Outperform.
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Piper Sandler moved to $550 from $540 at Overweight, citing Azure’s 43% constant-currency growth and the Copilot seat count. The outlier was Barclays, which trimmed its MSFT stock price target to $512 from $545 while keeping Overweight, arguing investors would revisit the shares after Q4.
Capex Discipline Rewards Microsoft as Peers React The setup stands in sharp contrast to last week’s tape. Alphabet‘s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google raised its 2026 capex outlook to $195 billion to $205 billion, up from $180 billion to $190 billion and above the $186.4 billion expected. Alphabet stock fell more than 6% on the news, so today’s Microsoft stock reaction reads as the market rewarding disciplined AI spending.
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), home to AWS, will face a higher bar when it reports next. Amazon stock trades 2% lower YTD. NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), the primary chip beneficiary of Azure’s infrastructure buildout, is a natural read-through winner given Microsoft’s commitment to keep spending on GPUs.
The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA:XLK) is on-theme here, with Microsoft at 11.84% and NVIDIA at 14.93% of the fund. That mega-cap concentration means the ETF often moves in lockstep with these two names. The ETF is up 16% YTD.
What to Watch Now Investors can watch for whether Microsoft stock holds the $427 into Thursday’s close, and whether follow-through develops in Amazon, NVIDIA, and other AI-infrastructure plays. Polymarket prediction markets are pricing a 94.5% probability that Microsoft stock closes above $400 today, so a fade toward that level would carry more weight than a routine intraday dip.
The next test is Amazon’s earnings, where AWS growth will be measured against Azure’s accelerating 43% pace. If the cloud-reacceleration story holds across both hyperscalers, today’s move may prove to be the start of a broader rerating rather than a one-day pop.
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Microsoft reported fourth-quarter revenue of $90.01 billion, up 18% year over year, and earnings of $4.74 per share, topping analyst estimates of $87.62 billion and $4.24, respectively.
Intelligent Cloud revenue climbed 32% to $39.3 billion, while Azure and other cloud services revenue jumped 43%. Total cloud revenue increased 27% to $59.3 billion.
Jefferies analyst Brent Thill and CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Microsoft’s results reinforce its position as one of the clearest beneficiaries of artificial intelligence, supported by multiple established revenue streams and continued cloud momentum.
Microsoft Offers Clearer AI MonetizationHe said investors remain focused on how long Big Tech can sustain elevated AI spending and when those investments will deliver broader financial returns. Microsoft’s diversified revenue base, he said, gives investors greater confidence that its AI spending is translating into tangible growth.
Cramer Highlights Azure, Software StrengthCramer called Microsoft’s quarter a clean beat on both revenue and earnings, saying the results could help reignite investor interest in software stocks despite recent pressure from rising bond yields.
He pointed to Azure’s 33% constant-currency growth, the platform’s fastest expansion in four years, and noted Microsoft’s strong free cash flow generation, suggesting its heavy data-center investments remain financially manageable.
Copilot Adoption AcceleratesCramer also highlighted growing demand for Microsoft 365 Copilot, which reached 30 million paid seats, up from more than 20 million three months earlier.
He said the quarter reinforced confidence in Microsoft’s execution and management team, adding that strong earnings from high-quality technology companies can quickly improve investor sentiment after periods of market weakness.
The stock carries a Buy rating with an average price forecast of $544.28. Recent analyst moves include:
Cantor Fitzgerald: Overweight (Raises forecast to $522.00) (July 30) Barclays: Overweight (Lowers forecast to $512.00) (July 30) Piper Sandler: Overweight (Raises forecast to $550.00) (July 30) Top ETF ExposureWhy It Matters: Microsoft is among the largest holdings in these ETFs, meaning significant fund inflows or outflows can trigger automatic buying or selling of the stock.
Price ActionMSFT Price Action: Microsoft shares were up 9.24% at $426.61 during premarket trading on Thursday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
Artificial intelligence remains the biggest force shaping today’s stock market, but investors are becoming more selective about where they’re willing to place their bets. For the past two years, simply announcing larger AI investments often lifted semiconductor stocks, cloud providers, and software companies alike. That era may be ending.
Microsoft‘s (NASDAQ:MSFT | MSFT Price Prediction) fiscal fourth-quarter results and Meta Platforms‘ (NASDAQ:META) latest earnings, both released this week, showed that Wall Street is no longer rewarding AI spending alone. Instead, investors want proof those billions are already generating measurable returns. The dramatically different reactions to two otherwise strong quarters may be the clearest sign yet that execution now matters more than ambition.
Microsoft Showed the AI Flywheel Is Already Turning Microsoft delivered exactly what investors hoped to see. Fiscal fourth-quarter revenue rose 18% year over year to $86.2 billion while earnings per share climbed 24% to $3.65. More importantly, Azure revenue accelerated 43% in the quarter, or 45% in constant currency, pushing Microsoft’s commercial cloud business beyond a $100 billion annual revenue run rate.
That matters because Microsoft isn’t simply spending on AI — it’s selling AI infrastructure through Azure. Every new GPU cluster, networking upgrade, and data center expansion has paying enterprise customers attached to it.
The company also reassured investors that spending isn’t slowing. Management guided first-quarter capital expenditures to roughly $50 billion, up from about $41 billion in fiscal Q4, while saying fiscal 2027 capital spending will rise again based on demand across its product portfolio.
Even Microsoft’s accounting update worked in its favor. CFO Amy Hood explained on the earnings call that more future data center leases will shift from finance leases to operating leases. That change reduces reported capital expenditures to approximately $175 billion for calendar 2026 without altering Microsoft’s underlying investment plans. Investors heard a simple message: spending remains aggressive, but management is carefully controlling how it appears on the financial statements.
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Meta Is Asking Investors for More Patience Meta reported another quarter of healthy revenue growth, but Wall Street focused elsewhere. The company raised the lower end of its 2026 capital expenditure guidance to a range of $130 billion to $145 billion while free cash flow plunged 91% year over year to just $784 million.
The difference is that Meta’s AI investments largely serve its own ecosystem. The company hopes larger AI models improve advertising performance, increase engagement across Facebook and Instagram, and eventually support AI assistants and new products. Those opportunities could become meaningful businesses, but they are still developing.
Here is why the market reacted as it did:
Factor Microsoft Meta Why It Mattered Monetization Azure cloud revenue grew 43%-45%; commercial cloud topped $100 billion annual run rate AI primarily improves Meta’s own platforms Microsoft already earns revenue directly from AI infrastructure Capital Spending Higher investment with accounting change reducing reported capex Raised 2026 capex floor to $130-$145 billion Microsoft emphasized discipline; Meta emphasized bigger spending Free Cash Flow Generated $19.6 billion Fell 91% to $784 million Cash generation remains far stronger at Microsoft Earnings Beat revenue and EPS expectations Revenue beat, but EPS missed as expenses climbed Profitability mattered more than revenue alone Visibility Azure backlog and cloud demand continue accelerating Future AI products remain largely unproven Investors prefer returns they can already measure Ironically, both companies are making the same long-term bet. The difference is that Microsoft can already point to customers writing checks today, while Meta is asking shareholders to trust that today’s spending produces tomorrow’s profits.
Key Takeaway In short, the market isn’t rejecting massive AI spending — it is demanding evidence that the spending is producing measurable returns. Microsoft provided that evidence through Azure’s accelerating growth, expanding cloud revenue, and a business model that monetizes AI infrastructure immediately. Meta offered a compelling long-term vision, but its collapsing free cash flow and higher capital spending reinforced concerns that the payoff remains several years away.
Ultimately, that’s an important lesson for investors across the AI ecosystem. Companies selling the picks and shovels of AI — from GPUs and memory to networking and optical components — still benefit when hyperscalers keep spending. But as Microsoft’s and Meta’s earnings showed, Wall Street has become much more discerning about who deserves credit for that spending. In this stage of the AI cycle, visibility, cash flow, and near-term monetization are proving far more valuable than bold promises alone.
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HomeIndustriesSoftwareTech StocksTech StocksThe company’s cloud business is sporting impressive growth, and Microsoft expects to avoid heading into cash-burn mode as it spends up on AIJuly 30, 2026, 9:51 a.m. ET
Microsoft has finally started to convince Wall Street that it’s striking the right balance on artificial intelligence — and that’s translating to historic stock gains.
The company had been fending off criticism for its AI spending, especially as cloud growth had been held in check. But investors are now warming to Microsoft’s MSFT story as the company’s latest earnings showed accelerating cloud performance. At the same time, management offered some reassurance that heavy AI spending isn’t expected to push the company into negative free-cash-flow territory this fiscal year.
, /PRNewswire/ -- Glancy Prongay Wolke & Rotter LLP announces that investors with losses have opportunity to lead the securities fraud class action lawsuit against Microsoft Corporation.
IF YOU SUFFERED A LOSS ON YOUR MICROSOFT CORPORATION INVESTMENTS, CLICK HERE BEFORE AUGUST 11, 2026 (LEAD PLAINTIFF DEADLINE) TO PARTICIPATE IN THE SECURITIES FRAUD LAWSUIT
What Is The Lawsuit About?
The complaint filed in this class action alleges that between May 1, 2025 and January 28, 2026, 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.
What's The Next Step?
Glancy Prongay Wolke & Rotter LLP is a leading national shareholder rights law firm, ready to assist you in potentially pursuing claims to recover your loss.
If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than August 11, 2026. Please contact us to learn more about your rights and interests by clicking here, by email ([email protected]), or by telephone at 310-201-9150 (Toll-Free: 888-773-9224).
You may retain counsel of your choice. If you bought securities during the class period, you may take no action and remain an absent class member. No class has been certified yet.
Why Glancy Prongay Wolke & Rotter LLP?
GPWR is a premier law firm with decades of experience representing investors and consumers in securities litigation and other complex class action litigation. Recognizing the firm's recent successes, GPWR was named one of Law360's Securities Groups of the Year and ranked 2nd in total investor recoveries by Institutional Shareholder Services Securities Class Action Services in 2025. GPWR's lawyers have handled cases covering a wide spectrum of corporate misconduct and relating to nearly all industries and sectors. GPWR's past successes have been widely covered by leading news and industry publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, Reuters, the Associated Press, Barron's, Investor's Business Daily, Forbes, and Money. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
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Alert: Microsoft's AI Promises Propelled MSFT Above $550 Per Share Before Alleged Copilot Deficiencies Surfaced, Costing Investors Billions in Market Value
, /PRNewswire/ -- SueWallSt notifies investors in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) that a class action has been filed on behalf of shareholders who purchased securities between May 1, 2025 and January 28, 2026. Find out if you could qualify to recover your per-share losses. You may also contact Joseph E. Levi, Esq. at [email protected] or (888) SueWallSt.
During the Class Period, MSFT shares traded at all-time highs above $550 per share as management touted "best-in-class" AI capabilities and record Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption across 90% of the Fortune 500. The lead plaintiff deadline is August 11, 2026.
How Alleged Misrepresentations Inflated MSFT's Market Price
The securities action asserts that Microsoft's stock price was artificially inflated by a sustained campaign of optimistic statements about the Company's AI products and cloud infrastructure. Throughout the Class Period, executives claimed Copilot was the fastest-growing product in Microsoft 365 history, that usage intensity was doubling quarter over quarter, and that Azure AI services were driving 16 points of cloud revenue growth. These statements allegedly fueled investor demand that pushed MSFT to record valuations.
The complaint contends that behind these public proclamations, the Copilot family of products suffered from significant brand positioning failures, data siloing limitations, computational capacity constraints, and interoperability problems that defendants knew about or recklessly disregarded. When the market began processing the gap between the Company's representations and the actual state of its AI offerings, billions in shareholder value evaporated.
The Azure-OpenAI Revenue Loop and Market Perception
Investors bid MSFT shares higher in part because of management's emphasis on massive AI-related contracts. The lawsuit chronicles how executives highlighted OpenAI's $250 billion Azure services commitment and Anthropic's $30 billion compute capacity agreement as proof of surging demand. The action claims these figures obscured the circular nature of the arrangements: Microsoft invested billions in these same LLM providers, who then committed to spending those dollars back on Microsoft's Azure platform. The filing states this dynamic created an appearance of organic demand growth that the market relied upon when pricing MSFT shares.
Market Repricing After Concealed Problems Emerged
The complaint details how the market ultimately reassessed MSFT's valuation as investors learned that:
Copilot's "record" adoption figures masked deep user experience and interoperability failures that limited real-world productivity gains The Company's AI infrastructure buildout, including plans to double its data center footprint, carried concentration and return-on-investment risks that were downplayed to investors Seat growth was concentrated in lower-ARPU segments like small businesses and frontline workers, undermining the revenue acceleration narrative The multibillion-dollar LLM provider partnerships created circular revenue dependencies rather than the independent demand growth executives described "When companies fail to disclose material information, shareholders may suffer significant losses. The magnitude of MSFT's market capitalization swing following these revelations underscores how heavily investors relied on management's AI growth narrative," stated Joseph E. Levi, Esq.
Submit your information here or contact Joseph E. Levi, Esq. at (888) SueWallSt.
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Frequently Asked Questions About the MSFT Lawsuit
Q: How much did MSFT stock drop? A: Shares traded at all-time highs above $550 per share during the Class Period before declining significantly after the market began processing that Microsoft's AI product claims were allegedly misleading. Investors who purchased shares at artificially inflated prices may be entitled to compensation.
Q: What specific misstatements does the MSFT lawsuit allege? A: The complaint alleges Microsoft made materially false or misleading statements regarding the success, adoption, and performance of its Copilot AI products and the return on investment for its multibillion-dollar AI capital expenditures, while concealing significant technical and organizational problems.
Q: What do MSFT investors need to do right now? A: Investors may gather brokerage records showing purchase dates, share quantities, and prices paid. Contact SueWallSt, a brand of Levi & Korsinsky LLP, for a no-cost, no-obligation case evaluation at [email protected] or (212) 363-7500. No immediate action is required to remain eligible as an absent class member.
Q: What if I already sold my MSFT shares -- can I still recover losses? A: Yes. Eligibility is based on when you purchased, not whether you still hold them. Investors who bought during the Class Period and sold at a loss may still participate.
Q: What does it cost me to participate? A: Nothing. Securities class actions are handled on a pure contingency basis. No upfront fees, no retainer, no out-of-pocket costs.
Q: How long will the lawsuit take to resolve? A: Securities class actions typically take two to four years from initial filing to resolution.
Q: Can I join a different law firm's lawsuit instead? A: Multiple firms often file competing complaints. The court consolidates and appoints a single lead counsel. Contacting Levi & Korsinsky before August 11, 2026 ensures your losses are considered.
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Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT | MSFT Price Prediction) and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) both reported on July 29, 2026, and the two earnings reports could not have delivered more different signals. Microsoft turned its enterprise AI thesis into cash. Meta delivered ad growth but bled margin. Investors now have real clarity on which mega-cap has proven monetization and which is still spending its way toward it.
Azure Prints Cash. Meta Prints Costs. Microsoft posted $90.01 billion in revenue, up 17.75%, with Intelligent Cloud driving $39.31 billion at 32% growth. Azure alone grew 43% and crossed $100 billion in full-year revenue for the first time. Copilot passed 30 million paid seats. Satya Nadella framed the quarter as execution, saying customers are turning “tokens into business results.” Commercial remaining performance obligations jumped 84% to $678 billion of contracted future revenue.
Meta beat revenue at $60.80 billion, up 27.96%, with ad impressions up 14% and price per ad up 12%. The ad engine works. Everything downstream hurts. EPS came in at $6.18, missing the $7.2173 estimate and snapping a six-quarter beat streak. Operating margin compressed to 31% from 43%. Free cash flow collapsed to $784 million from $8.55 billion. A $2.40 billion legal charge and $1.18 billion in severance from an 8,000-employee reduction did the damage.
Subscription Backlog vs. Ad Cycle Exposure Lens Microsoft Meta Core Bet Enterprise cloud and Copilot seats AI-optimized ad targeting Revenue Visibility $678B contracted backlog Quarterly ad market cycles FY Capex $115.95B $130B to $145B guided Margin Direction Expanding Compressing Both companies are spending like utilities. Only one is showing customers signing multi-year checks in return. Zuckerberg said “AI is accelerating our core business today,” yet $83.66 billion in long-term debt now funds the buildout. That is a longer bet with less near-term proof.
What Decides the Next Quarter I will be watching whether Azure holds above 40% growth as comparisons stiffen, and whether Copilot seat expansion translates into per-seat pricing power. For Meta, margin is the central question. If the $165 billion to $169 billion expense envelope holds while ad pricing keeps climbing, the operating income trajectory can repair itself. Prediction markets already lean hard: traders assign a 0.915 probability that Meta closes down on July 30, versus 0.955 that Microsoft closes up.
Why Microsoft Looks Like the Cleaner Setup, With Meta as a Patient Case On the fundamentals, Microsoft looks like the cleaner setup. The $678 billion commercial backlog gives visibility that Meta’s ad-cycle exposure cannot match, and margin defense at 45.6% operating is doing the heavy lifting. If you buy Meta here, you are buying a valuation pullback and holding through a multi-year capex phase where shares fell 6.63% in a week. That works for patient value investors. It does not work for anyone needing near-term free cash flow proof.
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.
In the night between July 29 and July 30, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) stock broke with its own history and the wider 2026 trend and soared after publishing its filing for the fourth quarter (Q4) of fiscal year 2026 (FY2026).
Specifically, after sliding 0.71% from $393.35 to $390.54 during the regular session preceding the earnings report, MSFT shares soared 8.88% to their after-hours price of $425.21.
Microsoft stock price one-day chart. Source: Google Overall, the move ensured that Microsoft added $257 billion to its market capitalization in a single night after losing approximately $700 billion from $3.6 trillion at the end of 2025 and falling to $2.9 trillion at the July 29 closing bell.
Why Microsoft stock just soared 8% in the extended session Examining the document, the blue-chip technology giant managed a double beat as it recorded an earnings per share (EPS) of $4.74 – $4.24 was forecasted – and revenue of $90.01 billion – analysts were calling for $87.62 billion.
Azure growth was a standout metric within the filing, considering it accelerated to 43% – up from 40% in the previous quarter – and the overall Intelligent Cloud segment saw $39.31 billion in revenue.
The sales figure represents a 31.6% rise from one year prior and was above the analyst estimate of $38.16 billion.
Additionally, though free cash flow fell to $19.64 billion, the 23% drop proved minuscule in comparison to Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META), revealed on the same day.
Notably, and unlike several of its peers, Microsoft was not penalized for its vast capital expenditures (CapEx) finance losses, which amounted to $41 billion in Q4 and are expected to hit roughly $175 billion on an annual basis.
Investors have grown increasingly wary of runaway CapEx due to the uncertain return on investment (ROI) on artificial intelligence (AI) and related infrastructure.
Is this the most important detail in the latest Microsoft earnings report? Lastly, a detail traders should remain aware of was the decision to increase the nominal useful life of data center and office buildings from 15 to 25 years.
Comparisons to the cables laid out during the Dot-com era – and the fact that particular expense proved valuable years later – have been a key element during the AI buildout.
The fact that high-tech hardware has a significantly shorter shelf life than wires in the ground has been an important argument in the toolbox of the skeptics, making both Microsoft’s latest decision and the earlier cloud provider choice to extend the useful life of GPUs and other such equipment from 4 to 6 years a potential indicator of attempted financial alchemy.
Still, it is also possible that corporate hardware has been moving in the opposite direction from consumer devices and they have grown more robust and durable over the years.
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Both Alphabet and Microsoft reported strong earnings driven by robust cloud growth in their latest quarterly results, but investors reacted very differently.
While Alphabet shares had fallen 7% after the company's earnings release, Microsoft stock surged about 9% in premarket trading on Thursday.
The divergence had little to do with cloud performance alone.
Instead, as has been the observed trend in recent times, investors focused on the companies' capital expenditure plans, free cash flow generation and whether massive investments in artificial intelligence are beginning to produce meaningful financial returns.
Alphabet's cloud revenue had risen 82% year over year to $24.8 billion during the quarter ended June, comfortably exceeding analysts' expectations of roughly 64% growth, according to LSEG data.
However, the strong operational performance was overshadowed by another significant increase in spending plans.
Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi told analysts that Alphabet now expects capital expenditures of between $195 billion and $205 billion during 2026, compared with previous guidance of $180 billion to $190 billion.
The revised forecast also exceeded analysts' expectations of about $188 billion, according to Visible Alpha.
The higher spending guidance reinforced investor concerns that AI infrastructure costs continue to rise faster than previously anticipated.
Microsoft entered earnings season facing many of the same questions as Alphabet.
Investors were closely watching whether the software giant would raise capital expenditure guidance again amid growing concerns that AI infrastructure spending is becoming increasingly difficult to justify.
Instead, Microsoft largely reassured the market.
Azure revenue increased 43% during the fiscal fourth quarter, beating analyst expectations of about 40%, according to Visible Alpha.
The cloud platform generated $39.3 billion in revenue during the quarter.
Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella also disclosed that Azure annual revenue had surpassed $100 billion for the first time.
"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," Nadella said.
The results suggested Microsoft's AI products are continuing to attract paying enterprise customers while strengthening demand for its cloud infrastructure.
More crucially, unlike Alphabet, Microsoft did not increase its AI spending outlook.
The company maintained its investment plans, forecasting first-quarter fiscal 2027 capital expenditures of $50 billion, below analyst estimates of $56 billion.
It also projected calendar-year 2026 capital expenditures of $175 billion, below its own earlier estimate of $190 billion.
Although Microsoft spent $41 billion during the April-June quarter, up more than 70% from a year earlier, the market appeared relieved that management was not signaling another acceleration in spending.
Microsoft's free cash flow also provided reassurance.
Microsoft generated $19.6 billion in free cash flow during the fiscal fourth quarter, exceeding analyst expectations of $13.4 billion, according to Visible Alpha, even though it declined 23% from a year earlier.
Management further strengthened confidence by stating that the company expects to remain free cash flow positive during fiscal 2027.
That contrasted with Scotiabank's forecast issued a day earlier, which had predicted Microsoft could slip into negative free cash flow next year while lowering its price target.
This contrasted with Alphabet's FCF figures.
The company reported negative free cash flow of $5.9 billion during the quarter, compared with nearly $5.3 billiongenerated during the same period last year.
Ashkenazi acknowledged that free cash flow is likely to remain under pressure as Alphabet continues expanding AI infrastructure.
Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mandeep Singh said the company's operating performance remained strong, but questioned whether investors would remain comfortable if spending continues rising.
"Right now they are probably $10-$15 billion free cash flow for this year, next year if this goes to $300 billion there is no way they're going to be positive free cash flow," Singh said during a Bloomberg podcast.
Microsoft also disclosed an accounting change that helped reduce reported annual capital expenditure.
The company said it will now amortize long-term data centre leases over 25 years instead of 15 years.
Extending the amortization period reduces the annual expense recognized in financial statements, even though the overall lease commitment and cash obligations remain unchanged.
While the change does not reduce Microsoft's actual investment, it lowers reported capital expenditure and improves certain financial metrics followed closely by investors.
For investors, Microsoft's quarter offered evidence that its enormous AI investments are beginning to generate tangible financial returns.
Cloud growth accelerated, Azure crossed the $100 billion annual revenue milestone, and Microsoft 365 Copilot reached more than 30 million paid seats, up from 20 million in the previous quarter.
Analysts had expected about 26.9 million paid seats, according to Reuters calculations based on estimates from Citi, Morgan Stanley, BNP Paribas and Wells Fargo.
Microsoft also reported a cloud contracted backlog of $678 billion, compared with $627 billion in the previous quarter.
The company said the entire sequential increase of roughly $50 billion came from customers outside the leading US AI model developers, indicating broad enterprise adoption rather than reliance on a handful of hyperscale AI companies.
"The company is still spending heavily on chips, data centres and networking equipment. Capital expenditure means money used to build assets that support the business for years. Yet investors could connect that spending to faster cloud growth and more paying Copilot users. The bill is large, but the restaurant appears busy," wrote Ruben Dalfovo, Investment Strategist at Saxo.
Analysts remain optimistic despite future spendingBarclays analysts said Microsoft's latest results provide enough evidence for investors to reconsider the stock following its nearly 19% decline this year.
"The company is delivering better Azure and finally better Office growth, while also not surprising negatively on its capex outlook and FCF targets," the analysts wrote.
"Given the different set-up for other main players (larger AI investments), we see a positive reaction."
Even so, Microsoft's future commitments remain substantial.
In a securities filing, the company disclosed that it has $329.1 billion worth of data center leases that have yet to commence, with lease terms scheduled to begin between fiscal 2027 and fiscal 2033.
Microsoft noted that some of these agreements remain subject to contractual conditions before becoming effective, indicating that a significant portion of its planned infrastructure expansion is still in the pipeline.
SummaryMicrosoft now allocates two-thirds of its $175B annual CapEx to short-lived assets like CPUs and GPUs, fundamentally shifting the AI CapEx narrative.This shift transforms AI infrastructure from a 'land grab' to a 'silicon subscription,' ensuring ongoing, recurring demand for semiconductor suppliers.I remain constructive on MSFT and rate it a Buy, emphasizing that the depreciation curve is the key metric to monitor each quarter.MSFT's CapEx flexibility allows rapid adjustment to demand, but risks include potential underutilization, rising component prices, and possible accounting reversals.jewhyte/iStock Editorial via Getty Images
In the 1870s, an investor buying into an American railroad was buying two assets bundled into one security. The actual infrastructure (the roadbed, the cuttings, the bridges, and the tunnels) was close to permanent, and some of them are still working today. The rolling
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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
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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.
Americká technologická společnost Microsoft zveřejnila výsledky hospodaření za čtvrtý kvartál fiskálního roku 2026, který skončil 30. června. Výnosy i zisk překonaly očekávání trhu, hlavním tahounem byl opět cloud. Klíčový Azure zrychlil růst na 43 % a za celý fiskální rok poprvé překonal hranici 100 mld. USD. Šlo o nejrychlejší kvartální růst od začátku roku 2022.
Výsledky společnosti Microsoft (MSFT) za 4Q FY 2026 4Q FY 2026 Konsensus 4Q FY2026 4Q FY 2025 Výnosy (mld. USD) 90,01 87,72 76,44 Čistý zisk (mld. USD) 35,77 -- 27,23 Očištěný zisk na akcii (EPS, USD/akcie) 4,74 4,25 3,86 Výsledky za 4Q Microsoft reportoval výnosy ve výši 90,01 mld. USD při očekávání 87,72 mld. USD. Při meziročním srovnání vzrostly o 18 %, při konstantních měnových kurzech o 17 %.
Z toho segment Microsoft Cloud vygeneroval výnosy na úrovni 59,3 mld. USD, což představuje meziroční nárůst o 27 %. Analytici očekávali 58,7 mld. USD.
Výnosy segmentu Productivity and Business Processes, který zahrnuje produkty Office, LinkedIn a Dynamics, dosáhly 37,85 mld. USD s očekáváním 37,27 mld. USD. Meziročně vzrostly o 14 %. Výnosy z cloudových služeb Microsoft 365 pro firemní zákazníky vzrostly o 14 %, po očištění o vliv loňského srovnávacího období o 16 %. Výnosy LinkedIn vzrostly o 12 %, resp. 10 % při konstantních měnových kurzech, výnosy Dynamics 365 o 13 %, resp. 12 %.
Výnosy ze segmentu Intelligent Cloud meziročně vzrostly o 32 %, resp. 31 % při konstantních měnových kurzech a dosáhly 39,31 mld. USD. Analytiky bylo očekáváno 38,17 mld. USD.
Výnosy z divize Azure a další cloudové služby meziročně vzrostly o 43 %, a to jak v reportovaném vyjádření, tak po očištění o kurzové vlivy. Wall Street očekávala nárůst na úrovni 39,6 %. Za celý fiskální rok 2026 výnosy Azure poprvé překonaly hranici 100 mld. USD.
Výnosy segmentu More Personal Computing, jenž např. zahrnuje produkty Windows a Xbox, meziročně klesly o 4 %, resp. 5 % při konstantních měnových kurzech a dosáhly 12,85 mld. USD. Trh odhadoval 12,17 mld. USD. Výnosy Windows OEM a zařízení klesly o 7 %, výnosy z obsahu a služeb Xbox o 10 %. Naopak výnosy z vyhledávací reklamy bez nákladů na získání návštěvnosti (Traffic Acquisition Costs – TAC) vzrostly o 10 %, resp. 9 % při konstantních měnových kurzech.
Provozní zisk společnosti meziročně vzrostl o 18 % a byl reportován ve výši 40,60 mld. USD. Wall Street odhadovala 39,02 mld. USD. Provozní marže činila 45 %.
Čistý zisk činil 35,77 mld. USD a meziročně vzrostl o 31 %. Očištěný čistý zisk, který nezahrnuje dopad investic do OpenAI, dosáhl 35,29 mld. USD a vzrostl o 22 %.
Výsledky ovlivnilo několik jednorázových položek, které přinesly kladný efekt 0,27 USD na akcii. Šlo především o zisk 3,2 mld. USD z investice do společnosti Anthropic (+0,33 USD na akcii) a nižší než očekávané náklady spojené s programem dobrovolných odchodů, což bylo částečně kompenzováno odstupným a odpisy v divizi Xbox.
Provozní hotovostní tok vzrostl meziročně o 30 % na 55,44 mld. USD.
Kapitálové výdaje včetně aktiv pořízených skrze finanční leasing meziročně vzrostly o 70 % na 41 mld. USD. Analytici očekávali 42 mld. USD. Zhruba dvě třetiny výdajů směřovaly do aktiv s kratší životností, především CPU a GPU. Za nemovitosti a vybavení společnost uhradila 35,8 mld. USD, finanční leasingy převážně pro velké lokality datacenter činily 5,6 mld. USD.
Volný hotovostní tok meziročně poklesl o 23 % na 19,64 mld. USD.
Zbývající nasmlouvané závazky (RPO) meziročně vzrostly o 84 % na 678 mld. USD. Bez zahrnutí OpenAI činil růst 25 %, přičemž celý mezikvartální přírůstek pocházel od zákazníků mimo okruh společností vyvíjejících pokročilé modely.
Výsledky za fiskální rok 2026 Za celý fiskální rok 2026 dosáhly výnosy 331,8 mld. USD při růstu o 18 %, resp. 16 % při konstantních měnových kurzech. Provozní zisk vzrostl o 21 % resp. 19 % na 155,2 mld. USD, zisk na akcii o 32 % na 17,95 USD, očištěný zisk na akcii pak o 22 % na 17,28 USD. Výnosy Microsoft Cloud za celý rok přesáhly 214 mld. USD při růstu o 27 %.
Výhled Microsoft v 1Q FY 2027 očekává:
Výnosy ve výši 89,85 až 90,95 mld. USD. Výnosy segmentu Productivity and Business Processes ve výši 36,7 až 37,0 mld. USD. Výnosy ze segmentu Intelligent Cloud ve výši 40,95 až 41,25 mld. USD. Výnosy segmentu More Personal Computing ve výši 12,2 až 12,7 mld. USD. Růst výnosů Azure zhruba o 45 % při konstantních měnových kurzech. Kapitálové výdaje ve výši více než 50 mld. USD včetně dopadu reklasifikace leasingů. Za celý fiskální rok 2027 společnost počítá s dvouciferným růstem výnosů i provozního zisku, provozní marže by měla klesnout o méně než jeden procentní bod. Volný hotovostní tok má zůstat kladný a kapitálové výdaje meziročně vzrostou.
Od začátku fiskálního roku 2027 Microsoft prodlužuje odhadovanou dobu životnosti datacenter a kancelářských budov z 15 na 25 let. Změna se promítne do klasifikace budoucích leasingů datacenter, které se z finančních leasingů započítávaných do kapitálových výdajů přesunou do leasingů operativních. Investiční očekávání pro kalendářní rok 2026 tak zůstávají beze změny, samotná výše kapitálových výdajů se ale snižuje z původních 190 mld. USD na zhruba 175 mld. USD.
Návrat kapitálu akcionářům Microsoft ve čtvrtém kvartále akcionářům navrátil 10,2 mld. USD, z toho 6,8 mld. USD ve formě dividend a 3,4 mld. USD prostřednictvím zpětných odkupů akcií.
Komentář vedení „Posouváme hranice na křivce nákladů vůči výsledkům a zajišťujeme, aby každý zákazník dokázal proměnit tokeny v obchodní výsledky," uvedl generální ředitel Satya Nadella. „V tomto fiskálním roce výnosy Azure poprvé překonaly 100 mld. USD a Microsoft 365 Copilot dosáhl více než 30 milionů placených licencí, což odráží důvěru, kterou nám zákazníci vkládají při své AI transformaci," dodal.
„Doručili jsme silný kvartál, kterým jsme uzavřeli fiskální rok. Vyzdvihnout lze výnosy Microsoft Cloud ve výši 59,3 mld. USD, meziročně o 27 % vyšší," uvedla finanční ředitelka Amy Hood.
Pohled analytiků Analytici z Bloomberg Intelligence uvedli, že nadkonsenzuální růst Azure o 43 % při konstantních měnových kurzech spolu s mezikvartálním nárůstem nesplněných smluvních závazků v komerčním segmentu o 45 mld. USD na 678 mld. USD mohou zmírnit obavy, že Microsoft zaostává za Googlem a Amazon Web Services v přírůstku výnosů spojených s umělou inteligencí.
Analytici z Morgan Stanley uvedli, že výsledky přinesly plošné překvapení směrem vzhůru a Azure zrychlilo výrazně nad laťku očekávanou investory.
Analytici z Barclays poznamenali, že akcelerace v Azure a Office vytváří lepší výhled. Vzhledem k odlišné výchozí pozici ostatních hlavních hráčů, kteří investují do AI více, očekávají pozitivní reakci trhu.
Analytici z RBC Capital Markets uvedli, že výsledky ukazují plošnou sílu napříč segmenty, a ocenili mezikvartální zrychlení růstu výnosů Azure o 3 procentní body i to, že Microsoft 365 Copilot překonal 30 mil. placených licencí oproti 20 mil. v předchozím kvartále.
Analytici z Emarketer uvedli, že výsledky byly výrazně nad očekáváním a Azure je střed tohoto příběhu. Také upozornili, že nejsledovanější položkou reportu byly kapitálové výdaje a ty přinesly spíše důvod k optimismu než k obavám. Navzdory vysokým investicím společnost vygenerovala provozní hotovostní tok ve výši 55,44 mld. USD, meziročně o 30 % vyšší, což je podle nich signál, že budování AI infrastruktury nekanibalizuje hlavní byznys.
Akcie Microsoft Akcie Microsoft (MSFT) v předburzovní fázi obchodování posilují o 9,08 % na 426 USD. S akciemi Microsoft mohou klienti Fio banky obchodovat také na RM-SYSTÉMu pod tickerem BAAMICRC, kde se naposled zobchodovaly za 8 730 Kč.
Akcie Microsoft (MSFT) před výsledky na 390,54 USD Ukazatel Ukazatel Kapitalizace (mld. USD) 2900,0 P/E 22,5 Vývoj za letošní rok (%) -19,2 Očekávané P/E 20,0 52týdenní minimum (USD) 349,2 Prům. cílová cena (USD) 558,3 52týdenní maximum (USD) 555,5 Dividendový výnos (%) 0,9 Zdroj: Microsoft, Bloomberg
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).
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Calamos Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) by 6.5% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 292,289 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 17,752 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up about 3.7% of Calamos Wealth Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. Calamos Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $108,197,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in MSFT. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 51.3% during the 2nd 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 during the last quarter. Bernzott Capital Advisors acquired a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Timmons Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at about $36,000. Fairway Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 287.0% in the 4th quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the period. Finally, LSV Asset Management bought a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at about $44,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Microsoft Stock 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’s 50 day moving average price is $396.43 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $405.74. The firm has a market cap of $2.90 trillion, a PE 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. The company had revenue of $90.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.34% and a return on equity of 31.94%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.65 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.7 earnings per share for the current year.
Microsoft Announces Dividend The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be issued a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 21.67%.
Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft In other news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 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 SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $402.84, for a total value of $1,812,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 47,468 shares in the company, valued at $19,122,009.12. The trade was a 8.66% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 23,762 shares of company stock valued at $10,508,361 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.
Analyst Ratings Changes MSFT has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. CLSA restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday. Scotiabank upgraded Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Wolfe Research dropped their price target on Microsoft from $570.00 to $525.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 6th. Citigroup restated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Citizens Jmp reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday. Forty-two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $554.73.
Get Our Latest Report on MSFT
Key Stories 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 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 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).
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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).
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Checchi Capital Advisers LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) by 3.5% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 80,329 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,715 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 1.5% of Checchi Capital Advisers LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 6th biggest position. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $29,735,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC boosted 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 last quarter. Bernzott Capital Advisors purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. Timmons Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at about $36,000. Fairway Wealth LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 287.0% in the 4th quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management purchased a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at about $44,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.
Microsoft Price Performance MSFT 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 company’s 50 day simple moving average is $396.43 and its 200 day simple moving average is $405.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.90 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.25, a P/E/G ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.13. 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 results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.34% and a return on equity of 31.94%. 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 firm posted $3.65 earnings per share. Microsoft’s revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.7 EPS for the current year.
Microsoft Dividend Announcement The company 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.67%.
Insider Activity at Microsoft In other Microsoft news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $402.84, for a total value of $1,812,780.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 47,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,122,009.12. This represents a 8.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 23,762 shares of company stock worth $10,508,361. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.
Microsoft News Summary 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. Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades MSFT has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, July 20th. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $575.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating and set a $646.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. New Street Research lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $675.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, July 24th. Forty-two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $554.73.
View Our Latest Stock Analysis 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).
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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).
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Canal Insurance CO raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) by 9.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 57,500 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,000 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up about 4.6% of Canal Insurance CO’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Canal Insurance CO’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $21,285,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth approximately $50,664,631,000. Auto Owners Insurance Co raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 56,160.8% during the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 60,116,384 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $29,073,486,000 after buying an additional 60,009,531 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the first quarter valued at approximately $18,733,827,000. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 49,618,571 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 49,640.3% in 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 buying an additional 29,906,791 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Microsoft News Summary 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 Stock Down 0.7% Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $390.54 on Thursday. 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 company has a market cap of $2.90 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.25, a PEG ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.13. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $349.20 and a 1 year high of $555.45. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $396.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $405.74.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.94% and a net margin of 39.34%.The firm had revenue of $90.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $87.62 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.65 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.7 earnings per share for the current year.
Microsoft Dividend Announcement The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be paid a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.67%.
Insider Transactions at Microsoft In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.84, for a total transaction of $1,812,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 47,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,122,009.12. The trade was a 8.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the executive vice president 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 disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 23,762 shares of company stock worth $10,508,361. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades Several equities analysts recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $490.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Raymond James Financial cut shares of Microsoft from a “market perform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday. New Street Research cut their price objective on Microsoft from $675.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $515.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Forty-two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $554.73.
Read Our Latest Stock Report on Microsoft
About Microsoft (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 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).
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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).
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AMG National Trust Bank boosted its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) by 15.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 82,342 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 11,168 shares during the quarter. AMG National Trust Bank’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $30,480,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. WFA Asset Management Corp boosted its stake in Microsoft by 27.0% in the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $427,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,658,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 410.4% in the 3rd quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,144,000 after purchasing an additional 2,138 shares during the period. Wealth Group Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 2,374 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,000,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 23,097 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,735,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Analysts Set New Price Targets A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Arete Research upped their price objective on Microsoft from $730.00 to $870.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Mizuho reduced their target price on Microsoft from $515.00 to $490.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. BNP Paribas Exane decreased their target price on Microsoft from $556.00 to $555.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 1st. DZ Bank reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday. Forty-two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given 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.
Read Our Latest Analysis on Microsoft
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. Microsoft Price Performance NASDAQ MSFT opened at $390.54 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $396.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of $405.74. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $349.20 and a 52-week high of $555.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.28. 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 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. The firm had revenue of $90.01 billion for 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%. The business’s revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.65 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Microsoft Announces Dividend The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 20th will be given a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 21.67%.
Insider Buying and Selling In other news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at $50,928,792.23. The trade was a 12.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $402.84, for a total value of $1,812,780.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 47,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,122,009.12. This represents a 8.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 23,762 shares of company stock valued at $10,508,361. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.
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).
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).
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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.
Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) Q4 2026 Earnings Call July 29, 2026 5:30 PM EDT
Company Participants
Jonathan Neilson - Vice President of Investor Relations
Satya Nadella - Chairman & CEO
Amy Hood - Executive VP & CFO
Conference Call Participants
Karl Keirstead - UBS Investment Bank, Research Division
Brent Thill - Jefferies LLC, Research Division
Mark Moerdler - Bernstein Institutional Services LLC, Research Division
Adam Wood - Morgan Stanley, Research Division
Brad Zelnick - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division
Gabriela Borges - Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Research Division
Presentation
Operator
Greetings, and welcome to the Microsoft Fiscal Year 2026 Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.
It is now my pleasure to introduce Jonathan Neilson, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Jonathan Neilson
Vice President of Investor Relations
Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today. On the call with me are Satya Nadella, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Amy Hood, Chief Financial Officer; Alice Jolla, Chief Accounting Officer; and Brian DeFoe, Deputy General Counsel and Corporate Secretary.
On the Microsoft Investor Relations website, you can find our earnings press release and financial summary slide deck, which is intended to supplement our prepared remarks during today's call and provides the reconciliation of differences between GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. More detailed outlook slides will be available on the Microsoft Investor Relations website where we provide outlook commentary on today's call.
On this call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP items. The non-GAAP financial measures provided should not be considered as a substitute for or superior to the measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. They are included as additional clarifying items to aid investors in further understanding the company's fourth quarter performance in addition to the impact these items and events have on the financial results.
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.
Microsoft Corporation delivered strong Q4 results, with Azure revenue accelerating 43% year-over-year and company-wide profits up 23%. MSFT trades at just 20x forward earnings, likely closer to 18x given its consistent earnings beats, offering compelling value for a high-growth, AAA-rated company. Azure's accelerating growth, robust cloud performance, and fortress balance sheet offset macro-driven consumer weakness, supporting a bullish long-term outlook.
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.
Palantir’s Earnings Setup Puts Its AI Growth Story Back on Trial AgainMicrosoft NASDAQ: MSFT closed fiscal 2026 with record revenue and continued growth in cloud and artificial intelligence services, while outlining plans for further infrastructure investment and forecasting double-digit revenue and operating-income growth in fiscal 2027.
For the fiscal fourth quarter, Microsoft reported revenue of $90 billion, up 18% year over year, or 17% in constant currency. Operating income rose 18%, while earnings per share reached $4.74, up 23% after adjusting for the impact of the company’s OpenAI investment. Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said the quarter included a $3.2 billion gain from Microsoft’s investment in Anthropic, as well as lower-than-expected expenses related to its voluntary retirement program. Those benefits were partly offset by Xbox severance and impairment charges.
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NVIDIA’s OpenAI Backstop Puts AI Financing Risk in FocusFor the full fiscal year, revenue surpassed $331 billion, up 18%, and operating income exceeded $155 billion, up 21%. Microsoft Cloud revenue exceeded $214 billion for the year, with nearly 90% coming from customers outside frontier-model companies, Hood said.
Azure Growth Accelerates Amid Capacity Constraints Intelligent Cloud revenue rose 32% to $39.3 billion in the quarter. Azure and other cloud services revenue increased 43%, with Hood saying demand continued to exceed available capacity. She attributed the stronger-than-expected Azure results partly to efficiency improvements across Microsoft’s CPU and GPU fleet and process changes that enabled capacity to be delivered earlier.
MarketBeat Week in Review – 07/20- 07/24Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said Microsoft added 31 data centers across five continents during the quarter, bringing the year’s total additions to 88. The company added another gigawatt of capacity and remains on track to roughly double its overall capacity in two years, he said. Microsoft also reduced dock-to-live times for new GPUs in its largest regions by nearly 50% over the past fiscal year.
Capital expenditures totaled $41 billion in the quarter, including higher component prices. About two-thirds of the spending was directed toward short-lived assets, primarily CPUs and GPUs. Hood said cash paid for property and equipment was $35.8 billion, while free cash flow was $19.6 billion.
Looking ahead, Microsoft expects fiscal first-quarter Azure revenue growth of about 45% in constant currency. Hood said the company remains capacity constrained despite its strong fourth-quarter execution and expects first-half Azure growth to accelerate.
AI Products Drive Commercial Momentum Microsoft continued to report expanding adoption of its AI offerings. Nadella said Microsoft 365 Copilot surpassed 30 million paid seats, with net paid-seat additions more than doubling sequentially. The company said the number of customers with more than 50,000 Copilot seats increased more than sevenfold from a year earlier.
Nadella highlighted several large deployments, including NHS England’s rollout to 505,000 clinicians and staff, HSBC’s commitment to 200,000 seats, and EY’s deployment of Microsoft’s E7 suite to 400,000 employees. Microsoft has begun adding usage-based billing alongside its per-seat licensing model for Copilot offerings.
GitHub Copilot reached 50 million users, while GitHub’s overall user base rose to 225 million. Nadella said Copilot revenue accelerated more than 60% sequentially after the company introduced usage-based billing. One in three pull requests on GitHub now involves an agent, he said.
Microsoft’s Foundry platform reached 100,000 customers and more than doubled revenue year over year. The company said the number of Foundry customers operating at an annualized rate of 1 trillion tokens increased fourfold. Meanwhile, Agent 365, introduced two months earlier, had nearly 40 million agents registered across tens of thousands of companies.
The company is also promoting a multivendor model strategy. Nadella said Microsoft offers more than 11,000 models through its cloud catalog, including offerings from OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral and xAI, alongside Microsoft’s own MAI models. He said the number of customers using models from multiple providers increased fivefold since the start of the year.
Margins, Consumer Businesses and Capital Spending Companywide gross margin was 67%, down from a year earlier due to a greater mix of Azure revenue, AI infrastructure investments and increased product usage. Operating margin nevertheless rose slightly to 45%, as operating expenses increased 10%, slower than revenue growth.
In Productivity and Business Processes, revenue increased 14% to $37.8 billion. Microsoft 365 Commercial Cloud revenue rose 14% on a reported basis, while Dynamics 365 revenue grew 13%. LinkedIn revenue rose 12%, primarily driven by marketing solutions.
More Personal Computing revenue declined 4% to $12.9 billion. Windows OEM and devices revenue fell 7%, which Hood attributed to lower PC market demand and a difficult comparison with the prior year, when Windows 10 end-of-support contributed to results. Xbox revenue declined 10%, and Xbox content and services revenue also fell 10%.
Nadella said Microsoft is making decisions across Xbox content, platform and operations to reset the business for long-term growth. He said the company expects Xbox to return to growth in fiscal 2027.
Fiscal 2027 Outlook For the fiscal first quarter, Microsoft forecast total revenue of $89.85 billion to $90.95 billion, representing growth of 16% to 17%. The company expects Intelligent Cloud revenue of $40.95 billion to $41.25 billion and Productivity and Business Processes revenue of $36.7 billion to $37 billion.
Microsoft expects first-quarter capital expenditures of more than $50 billion, including the effect of a lease reclassification tied to an extension in the estimated useful life of data centers and office buildings. The company now expects approximately $175 billion in fiscal 2027 capital expenditures, while maintaining that its underlying calendar 2026 investment expectations are unchanged.
For fiscal 2027, Hood said Microsoft expects another year of double-digit revenue and operating-income growth, with operating expenses rising in the mid- to high-single-digit range. Operating margins are expected to decline by less than one percentage point for the full year, and the company expects to remain free-cash-flow positive.
About Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)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).
This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected].
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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.
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After the market closed on Wednesday, tech giant and AI hyperscaler Microsoft (MSFT -0.71%) reported better-than-expected Q4 2026 earnings for the period ending June 30.
Revenue and operating income were both up 18% year-over-year (YoY) to $90 billion and $40.6 billion, respectively. Revenue beat the consensus expectation of $87.6 billion.
Given this impressive performance, is Microsoft’s stock a buy?
Image source: Getty Images.
A big beat with a small asteriskAlthough revenue and operating income both rose, it was the marquee earnings per share (EPS) number that really smashed expectations, coming in at an adjusted $4.74/share, compared to the consensus of $4.24/share, a 31% improvement over the prior-year quarter.
However, $0.27/share of those earnings was attributable to special items, including a $3.2 billion gain from the company’s investment in the AI company Anthropic. Still, even if we strip out those items, Microsoft’s EPS would be $4.47/share, up 15.8% YoY and still beating the consensus.
In general, as Microsoft CFO Amy Hood put it, it was “a strong quarter to close out the fiscal year.”
But there were a few particularly noteworthy items that deserve special attention from investors.
Cloud comes in clutchMicrosoft’s cloud computing platform Azure has long been the second-most-used cloud computing platform in the world, behind Amazon’s (AMZN -1.82%) AWS but ahead of Alphabet’s (GOOGL +0.90%) Google Cloud Services. In recent quarters, Google Cloud Services has seen explosive growth in both revenue and profits, which the company attributes to its implementation of AI. AWS has also reported higher top- and bottom-line growth among users using its AI features.
That trend applied to Microsoft as well, with revenue from Azure and other cloud services increasing 43% YoY. Although Microsoft didn’t break out the actual dollar amount, the overall Intelligent Cloud segment, which includes Azure, saw revenue increase 32% to $39.3 billion.
Holding the line on spendingShares of Microsoft rival Alphabet took a hit after its recent Q2 earnings call, in which it increased its capital expenditures (capex) forecast for the year, largely due to increased spending on AI infrastructure. The Google parent’s capex was already up significantly from the prior year, and investors were starting to question whether the ultimate payoff would justify the massive upfront expense.
Meta Platforms (META -1.31%) encountered a similar situation as it narrowed its 2026 capex guidance toward the higher end of its previously announced range, causing its shares to take a post-earnings hit as well.
But Microsoft bucked the trend. True, its quarterly capex of $35.8 billion was more than double the year-ago quarter’s capex of $17.1 billion. But the company announced it was keeping its forecast for total calendar year 2026 capex unchanged at $175 billion following an accounting change. Investors rewarded the stock by sending shares up 8% in after-hours trading.
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390.54
Even with that 8% increase, Microsoft shares are still down more than 15% over the past year, underperforming the S&P 500 and cloud rivals Alphabet and Amazon. Meanwhile, its forward price-to-earnings ratio has dropped from 30 to a more reasonable 20.
With Azure showing impressive revenue growth and management keeping a lid on AI spending (at least for now), Microsoft looks like a buy.
John Bromels has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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.
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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 CEO Satya Nadella. Sven Hoppe/picture alliance via Getty Images Microsoft kept its capex forecast unchanged on Wednesday, becoming one of the first data center giants to hold the line on the industry's runaway AI spending spree.
The stock surged about 8% on the news.
Earlier this year, the company said it planned to spend $190 billion on capital expenditures this calendar year.
On Wednesday's earnings call, Microsoft kept this spending forecast steady. Due to an accounting change, this capex guidance is now $175 billion. However, in reality, Microsoft is keeping its AI capex plan the same for this year.
The decision to keep a lid on capex is unusual. Most cloud giants have been steadily increasing their AI spending forecasts as they race each other to grab a big share of this fast-growing market.
However, investors have become increasingly concerned about the returns on these huge investments. That's led some on Wall Street to wonder whether tech giants would blink during this earning season.
Alphabet recently increased its capex projection by $15 billion. Tesla also bumped up its own projection. Both stocks fell sharply last week on the news as investors punished the higher spending plans. And on Wednesday, Meta narrowed its own capex forecast range, raising the midpoint by $2.5 billion for the year.
Even prior to Alphabet's increased forecast, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta had already laid out plans to spend more than $700 billion this year largely on AI data centers.
That spending binge has sent the price of memory chips soaring this year. Memory is a big part of data center costs, so these increases have made it more expensive to build AI capacity.
This means that rising AI capex forecasts have been at least partly driven by higher memory costs, rather than new plans to build more capacity.
Earlier research found that soaring memory prices could explain about 45% of the growth in capex by the big cloud companies this year.
So, with Microsoft keeping its capex plans steady, this could imply the company actually ends up pulling back slightly from building more capacity.
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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.
Image Credits:Justin Sullivan / Getty Images When Microsoft reported killer fourth-quarter earnings for its fiscal 2026 year (which ended June 30), it tucked in an interesting little tidbit about how its investments in the two biggest, and competing, AI labs are doing.
For the quarter, it recorded its investment in Anthropic as a $3.2 billion gain, boosting diluted earnings per share by 33 cents. (Microsoft reported diluted earnings per share of $4.81 for the quarter). Microsoft invested $5 billion in Anthropic in November 2025 as part of a circular agreement under which the AI lab also agreed to buy $30 billion worth of Azure services.
Microsoft does not routinely update the value of its Anthropic investment each quarter. It does, however, discuss its OpenAI investment quarterly. Microsoft said investment did not fare nearly as well in the quarter, and marked it down about $600 million, reducing diluted EPS by about 7 cents per share.
Microsoft owns about 27% of OpenAI. And while Microsoft also receives revenue-share payments, it doesn’t report how much OpenAI pays under that arrangement. Instead, Microsoft accounts for the value of its investment. While this quarter brought a pretty sizable decline in the value of that investment, the $600 million write-down was still mostly a rounding error for Microsoft. The company delivered a highly profitable quarter, reporting $90 billion of revenue and net income of $35.8 billion for the quarter. Microsoft’s revenue was $331.8 billion with a net income of $133.7 billion for the year.
Microsoft’s OpenAI investment looks much better when viewed on a full-year basis.
For the year, Microsoft’s OpenAI investment generated a $5 billion gain and added $0.67 on EPS, respectively, the company reported. (Microsoft reported $17.95 EPS for its fiscal year.) Still, it is noteworthy that Microsoft reported nearly as much of a gain on Anthropic in one quarter as it did for the year on OpenAI. In fact, it is so noteworthy that Microsoft disclosed it.
Live Coverage Updates appear automatically as they are published.
Live Updates Pinned 2 hours ago
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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
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That wraps up our initial coverage of Microsoft’s Q4 results. Thank you for stopping by!
1 hour ago
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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July 29 (Reuters) - Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab topped Wall Street estimates for quarterly cloud revenue growth on Wednesday, a sign its massive spending on AI infrastructure was paying off as capacity constraints ease and more businesses adopt the technology.
Revenue at the company's Azure cloud-computing business rose 43% in its fiscal fourth quarter, compared with analysts' consensus estimate of 39.98%, according to Visible Alpha.
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Shares of Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft were up about 4% in extended trading.
"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," CEO Satya Nadella said.
The strong growth could ease concerns about the company's surging data center outlays and fears that AI tools could displace its long-reliable productivity software business.
Microsoft's report follows Google (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Cloud's blockbuster quarter, with the rival posting an 82% surge in cloud revenue last week, far ahead of market expectations.
"It seemed kind of like Google was taking market share from everybody and they could catch up to the market share of Azure if they keep on that trajectory," said Dave Wagner, portfolio manager at Aptus Capital Advisors. "But what Azure is showing us is that it's staying right there in the race."
SOLID PERFORMANCEMicrosoft reported contracted backlog of $678 billion in its cloud business at the end of the quarter, up from $627 billion in the prior quarter. It said all the sequential gains, or about $50 billion in future sales, were driven by commitments from companies outside the leading U.S. AI model makers.
Its M365 Copilot paid seats totaled more than 30 million, compared with 20 million reported last quarter. Analysts on average were expecting 26.9 million Copilot seats, according to Reuters calculations based on estimates from Citi, Morgan Stanley, BNP Paribas and Wells Fargo.
Microsoft has forecast spending $190 billion this calendar year, part of the more than $700 billion in unprecedented Big Tech outlays that have strained the companies' cash flows and stoked fears of capacity overbuild.
Capital expenditures for the April-June quarter were $41 billion, up more than 70% from last year, and compared with market estimates of $42.37 billion. Microsoft reported $31.9 billion in capital spending in the prior three-month period.
But much more spending could be coming.
In a securities filing, Microsoft said it has data center leases of $329.1 billion that have not yet commenced, with leases starting between its fiscal year 2027 and fiscal year 2033, with lease terms between one and 20 years. Microsoft said some of the leases are subject to certain contractual conditions being met before they begin.
"They will last many, many, many years. It can be lumpy even in terms of when leases are signed," said Jonathan Neilson, Microsoft's vice president of investor relations. "Again, it always comes back to the demand signal we're seeing."
Meanwhile, the company is cutting dependence on OpenAI's technology by adding Anthropic's models into its offerings and developing in-house AI, while leaning on its deep business ties to boost adoption of the $30-a-month Copilot, including through deals such as the one with Accenture earlier this year.
The company is among the worst performers in the so-called "Magnificent Seven" group of mega-caps with an 18% drop so far this year, trailing cloud rivals such as Alphabet.
Microsoft has said its cloud growth is being held back by capacity constraints that it expects to persist at least through the end of 2026. That has forced the company to choose between powering its own AI services such as the 365 Copilot assistant and renting computing power to customers through Azure.
Still, some analysts say the concerns around Microsoft are overblown, noting that AI demand remains strong and it has made efforts to ease constraints through deals beyond its own data-center build-out, such as a recent tie-up with France's Mistral.
Overall revenue for the quarter rose 18% to $90 billion, beating estimates. Its per-share profit, excluding the impact from investments in OpenAI, was $4.74, beating expectations of $4.24.
Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Aurora Ellis
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
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.
The software giant closed its fiscal year with $90 billion in quarterly sales; investors remain fixated on whether its record data-center buildout will pay off.
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
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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."
