If there is a slowdown in the economy, AI spending could come down, and so could the excitement and demand for AI products and services. The big test will be what happens next quarter for Microsoft and whether its growth rate can accelerate or even remain stable. If it doesn’t, however, that could put downward pressure on Microsoft’s valuation. MSFT has a Growth Style Score of B, forecasting year-over-year earnings growth of 13.9% for the current fiscal year. Investors can count on the Zacks Rank’s success, with #1 (Strong Buy) stocks producing an unmatched +23.93% average annual return since 1988, more than double the S&P 500’s performance.
Growth with a side of guaranteed income
- AI might not have the immediate effect on Azure’s business that was anticipated, but it’s still well-positioned to be a high-growth area for Microsoft in the near term.
- However, Microsoft has increased its dividend regularly in recent years, and it’s all but certain that it’ll continue that streak.
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- Day traders might see this as a show of muscles, but it indicates the stock could be a bit “overbought” in the short term.
- Tech giant Microsoft (MSFT) is scheduled to report its fiscal fourth‑quarter earnings on July 30, after the market closes.
Given how much attention artificial intelligence (AI) has been getting and how it’s supposed to boost cloud platforms like Azure, it makes sense that investors put a microscope on that part of Microsoft’s business. But for me, the company hasn’t shown enough to suggest that it’s a big innovator these days and that it can keep up with other businesses. While it’s undoubtedly one of the biggest names in tech, that doesn’t mean it’ll be one of the best growth stocks or among the largest benefactors from the growth opportunities related to AI. More recently, the company is diving headfirst into artificial intelligence (AI).
Microsoft doesn’t release revenue numbers for just the Azure platform, but “Azure and other cloud services” revenue increased 29% year over year. This is a slowdown from previous quarters, but not a reason to ring the alarm, in my opinion. Microsoft consistently puts up good financial numbers, and its latest quarter was no different. Its revenue and operating income both increased 15% year over year, which is impressive for a company of its size.
Its core businesses are rock solid, and the continued adoption of the cloud presents new growth opportunities. Long-term investors shouldn’t give too much weight to Microsoft’s current valuation. AWS is the leading cloud platform, with a 31% market share, but Azure has been picking up steam. Its market share is 25%, well ahead of third-place Alphabet’s Google Cloud, at 11%. AI might not have the immediate effect on Azure’s business that was anticipated, but it’s still well-positioned to be a high-growth area for Microsoft in the near term. The one downside of Microsoft’s latest earnings came from its cloud platform, Azure.
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- Microsoft’s dividend won’t carry the stock, but it is good to have that extra income stream to complement its strong growth.
- Using TipRanks’ Options tool, we can see what options traders are expecting from the stock immediately after its earnings report.
- Microsoft’s AI products command 42% higher ASPs than standard offerings with 3.8x faster adoption rates.
- Separately, Microsoft’s Productivity and Business Processes segment is expected to rise by about 11–12% from last year to roughly $32 billion.
- And if that doesn’t end up being the case, it could lead to a correction.
For Microsoft to continue surging in value, I think it needs to show investors that Copilot is the real deal that can be a huge growth catalyst for its business. When analyzing if is MSFT a good stock to buy, the company’s AAA-rated balance sheet (one of only two US corporations with this rating) demands attention. Microsoft maintains $127.4 billion in liquid assets against $78.3 billion in long-term debt, yielding a 1.63x coverage ratio – 2.7x higher than the tech sector average.
However, the good part is that Microsoft is expecting its AI capacity to match demand by the end of the current fiscal year, owing to the substantial increase in its capital expenses. The company points out that it witnessed a whopping 157% jump in AI services revenue last quarter, exceeding its expectations. However, the tech giant faced constraints as “demand continued to be higher than our available capacity.” As a result, the 31% jump in Azure revenue fell slightly below analysts’ expectations.
Stock Performance and Valuation
This dedication to giving investors a trading advantage led to the creation of our proven Zacks Rank stock-rating system. Since 1988 it has more than doubled the S&P 500 with an average gain of +23.93% per year. These returns cover a period from January 1, 1988 through October 6, 2025. Zacks Rank stock-rating system returns are computed monthly based on the beginning of the month and end of the month Zacks Rank stock prices plus any dividends received during that particular month. A simple, equally-weighted average return of all Zacks Rank stocks is calculated to determine the monthly return. Only Zacks Rank stocks included in Zacks hypothetical portfolios at the beginning of each month are included in the return calculations.
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Certain Zacks Rank stocks for which no month-end price was available, pricing information was not collected, or for certain other reasons have been excluded from these return calculations. Zacks may license the Zacks Mutual Fund rating provided herein to third parties, including but not limited to the issuer. While retail investors often automatically classify Microsoft as a “blue-chip defensive holding,” institutional-grade analysis demands scrutinizing quarterly revenue growth rates, margin expansion trends, and emerging competitive threats. Pocket Option’s technical analysis suite offers 15+ proprietary indicators specifically calibrated for tech sector volatility patterns, enhancing fundamental research when evaluating if MSFT stock merits portfolio inclusion. The company’s current price-to-earnings (P/E) is microsoft a good stock to buy ratio stands at 35, which exceeds the market average values. Despite being expensive to some investors, the earnings growth demonstrates that the valuation is justified.
A stock with a #4 (Sell) or #5 (Strong Sell) rating, for instance, even one with Scores of A and B, will still have a declining earnings forecast, and a greater chance its share price will fall too. It started the year closer to $420 and has appreciated over 18% year-to-date. The bulk of these gains were in the last couple of months, particularly following robust earnings and increasing enthusiasm surrounding its AI offerings. Not surprisingly, Microsoft is going to ramp up its infrastructure spending as it strives to fulfill these contracts in the future, which should ideally lead to an acceleration in growth going forward.
That said, it did beat Wall Street expectations and helped push the stock up. A potential improvement in Microsoft’s earnings growth thanks to its ability to tap the huge addressable opportunity in the cloud-based AI services market points toward a bright future for this AI stock. The company’s massive investment in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure came under scrutiny following Chinese start-up DeepSeek’s revelation that it has developed AI models at a fraction of the cost that the tech giant has spent so far.
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Short-term traders may want to wait for a dip to the $470–490 range before getting in. Global factors such as trade wars, tariffs, inflation, or interest rate hikes could impact major tech stocks, including Microsoft. Certain analysts think the tech market is becoming too congested and may experience a readjustment.
Microsoft stock has moved an average of nearly 6% following its four most recent earnings reports. In July, shares rose about 4% the day after the company reported better-than-expected earnings driven by cloud computing growth. One of the most important reasons Microsoft stock is increasing is due to its dominance in AI and cloud computing. Its cloud platform, Azure, increased revenue by approximately 35 percent over the previous year.
Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform generates $52.7 billion in annual revenue (Q run-rate) and delivers 42% of the company’s operating profit while expanding at 27% year-over-year – 8.4 percentage points faster than the overall cloud infrastructure market. Azure has captured 23% market share, narrowing the gap with AWS (32%) from 12 points to 9 points over 24 months while maintaining a commanding 12-point lead over Google Cloud (11%). Executives estimated capital expenditures would total $30 billion in the quarter being reported Wednesday. Bank of America analysts wrote in a note last week that an increase to Microsoft’s capex guidance could give the stock a post-earnings boost. Analysts expect Microsoft to report another quarter of strong revenue and earnings growth. Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform, where the company recognizes revenue from hosting AI workloads, is expected to grow 38% year-over-year.