On July 27, Microsoft rose 3.14% in regular trading, trading at $393.505/share, with turnover of $39.83 billion. The stock gained alongside a broad cloud computing sector rally ahead of its fiscal Q4 earnings report scheduled for July 29.
Multiple catalysts converged to lift the stock. The cloud computing sector saw broad strength, with Oracle up over 5% and ServiceNow rising nearly 6%. Simultaneously, U.S. core capital goods orders for June rose 0.9% month-over-month, beating the 0.7% consensus, with shipments surging 1.9% versus 0.6% expected — reinforcing the narrative that AI infrastructure spending remains robust.
Investor focus is squarely on Wednesday's earnings release, where consensus expects EPS of $4.24, representing 25.9% year-over-year growth. Azure cloud growth is the critical metric, with analysts watching whether the segment can sustain growth above 40% given quarterly capital expenditures exceeding $40 billion and a full-year budget approaching $190 billion. UBS recently lowered its target price from $510 to $480, reflecting caution around the balance between AI investment intensity and free cash flow generation.
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