{"id":3114,"date":"2026-10-26T16:42:37","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T16:42:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/retrotradingreport.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/26\/microsoft-stock-gains-as-wall-street-sees-azure-growth-despite-rising-ai-spending\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T16:42:37","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T16:42:37","slug":"microsoft-stock-gains-as-wall-street-sees-azure-growth-despite-rising-ai-spending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/retrotradingreport.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/26\/microsoft-stock-gains-as-wall-street-sees-azure-growth-despite-rising-ai-spending\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft stock gains as Wall Street sees Azure growth despite rising AI spending"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Microsoft stock gained on Monday after attracting bullish analyst sentiment ahead of its fiscal first-quarter earnings report, with Wall Street expecting continued growth in its Azure cloud platform and Copilot AI assistant despite rising infrastructure spending.<\/p>\n

MSFT shares rose 1.1% on Monday. The stock reached a record closing high of $543.45 on October 13.<\/p>\n

Microsoft shares have gained 34% since July 29, when the company reported strong fiscal fourth-quarter results that helped reinforce investor confidence in its AI investments.<\/p>\n

The company spent $41 billion on capital expenditure in the fiscal fourth quarter and $145 billion over the full fiscal year. <\/p>\n

Its next test comes on Wednesday, when it is scheduled to report fiscal first-quarter earnings after the market closes.<\/p>\n

Azure and Copilot growth remain key to Microsoft\u2019s outlook<\/h2>\n

Cantor analyst Thomas Blakey reiterated his Overweight rating and $608 price target ahead of the results, noting that capital expenditure would be a central focus. <\/p>\n

He expects spending in fiscal 2027, which began on July 1, to increase significantly.<\/p>\n

However, Blakey said his analysis points to continued growth in Azure and Copilot, with Microsoft positioned as the \u201centerprise AI orchestration layer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMicrosoft continues to expect margin improvement within individual cloud and AI product layers despite near-term mix pressure,\u201d Blakey said.<\/p>\n

He also highlighted the company’s potential to benefit as AI adoption expands across businesses, supporting continued momentum in Azure.<\/p>\n

Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Wood maintained an Overweight rating and a $600 price target. <\/p>\n

He views increasing competition among AI models as a positive for Microsoft, arguing that a wider range of models could drive greater Azure capacity consumption and Copilot usage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see accelerating model choice as further validation of Microsoft\u2019s positioning across the AI stack,\u201d Wood said. He added that a multi-model environment aligns with Microsoft’s full-stack AI platform.<\/p>\n

Analysts see enterprise demand supporting Azure<\/h2>\n

Oppenheimer raised its Microsoft price target to $625 from $570 while maintaining an Outperform rating. <\/p>\n

The firm’s checks indicate healthy enterprise demand for Azure and Microsoft 365, supporting the outlook for continued growth.<\/p>\n

Oppenheimer also said infrastructure availability, rather than demand, remains the main constraint on Azure’s expansion. <\/p>\n

Additional capacity coming online this fiscal year and next could help accelerate growth across Azure and Microsoft 365.<\/p>\n

Oppenheimer forecasts fiscal first-quarter revenue of $90 billion, representing 16% year-over-year growth, and GAAP earnings of $4.69 per share. <\/p>\n

It estimates Azure revenue growth of 46% in constant currency, compared with buy-side expectations of 47%.<\/p>\n

The firm also flagged fiscal 2027 capital expenditure requirements as a risk to monitor. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, broader Copilot monetisation beyond seat-based pricing could support Microsoft 365 Commercial Cloud growth.<\/p>\n

Truist expects AI momentum to support longer-term growth<\/h2>\n

Truist analyst Terry Tillman raised his price target to $600 from $575 and maintained a Buy rating. <\/p>\n

Truist expects Azure growth to accelerate in the fiscal first quarter and believes elevated growth could persist for longer.<\/p>\n

The firm cited continued AI and agentic activity, including Copilot and Microsoft’s role in coordinating first- and third-party AI workloads.<\/p>\n

Truist also pointed to Azure efficiencies and established businesses such as Microsoft 365 as potential supports for Microsoft’s free cash flow.<\/p>\n

FactSet data shows that the average price target among 59 firms covering Microsoft is $599.14, alongside an average Buy rating. <\/p>\n

Investors will watch Wednesday’s results for evidence that growing AI demand can justify the company’s expanding capital expenditure.<\/p>\n

The post Microsoft stock gains as Wall Street sees Azure growth despite rising AI spending<\/a> appeared first on Invezz<\/a><\/p>\n

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Microsoft stock gained on Monday after attracting bullish analyst sentiment ahead of its fiscal first-quarter earnings report, with Wall Street expecting continued growth in its Azure cloud platform and Copilot AI assistant despite rising infrastructure spending.MSFT shares rose 1.1% on Monday. The stock reached a record closing high of $543.45 on October 13.Microsoft shares have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3115,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/retrotradingreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/retrotradingreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/retrotradingreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retrotradingreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retrotradingreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/retrotradingreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retrotradingreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/retrotradingreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retrotradingreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retrotradingreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}