Oppenheimer’s Brian Schwartz raised Microsoft’s target to $570 from $515 on Sept. 22, keeping an Outperform rating. That implies about 14% upside from the Sept. 21 close of $501.61; after meeting executives, he cited their upbeat comments on AI features and customer demand.
Schwartz expects Azure growth of about 46% in constant currency this quarter and sees a path toward 50% next quarter, compared with Microsoft’s roughly 45% guidance for fiscal Q1 2027. Azure and other cloud services grew 43% in fiscal Q4. CEO Satya Nadella said Microsoft 365 Copilot topped 30 million paid seats in fiscal 2026.
Microsoft’s fiscal Q4 capital spending rose 70% to $41 billion, and the company expects roughly $175 billion for calendar 2026. Schwartz said efficiency gains and capital discipline are making spending more predictable, but flagged AI disruption and a possible pull-forward of some second-half 2026 enterprise IT spending as risks to Azure and Microsoft 365 growth into 2027 and to cloud margins.
