New York, Jan 25, 2026, 09:47 EST — Market closed.
- Microsoft shares climbed on Friday ahead of a crowded earnings week for mega-cap tech.
- Analysts trimmed price targets but kept broadly positive views as Azure and AI spending stay in focus.
- Attention turns to Wednesday’s Fed decision and Microsoft’s quarterly results.
Microsoft Corp shares rose 3.3% on Friday to close at $465.95, heading into the weekend on a firmer note after a choppy week for Wall Street. The stock traded between $450.60 and $471.10, with about 38 million shares changing hands.
The move matters now because investors will get Microsoft’s results on Jan. 28 in a heavy week for earnings from the biggest U.S. technology names, including Apple, Meta Platforms and Tesla. The Federal Reserve’s meeting lands in the same stretch, and strategists say rich valuations leave less room for a miss.
U.S. stocks finished the week modestly lower, with the Dow down 0.6% on Friday and the Nasdaq up 0.3% as traders digested Intel’s sharp slide on a downbeat forecast. Markets have swung this month on tariff headlines and shifting expectations for what comes next from policymakers.
Broker talk also played into Microsoft’s bounce. UBS analyst Karl Kierstead cut his price target on the stock to $600 but kept a buy rating, pointing to the ramp of Fairwater AI data centers as “key near-term catalysts for Microsoft Azure growth.” A price target is an analyst’s estimate of where the shares could trade in roughly a year. Nasdaq
Other firms have been trimming targets as well. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered its target to $590 from $639 while reiterating an overweight-equivalent rating, TipRanks reported; Morgan Stanley kept an overweight rating and a $650 target. The notes cited valuation “compression” — investors paying less for each dollar of earnings — across software. TipRanks
That debate is rolling straight into what some investors call the market’s “show-me” season for artificial intelligence, when big spending on data centers needs to start showing up as revenue. “You have to actually put up the revenue growth to justify the run-up in stocks,” said Julian McManus, a portfolio manager at Janus Henderson. Reuters
But the set-up cuts both ways. If Microsoft’s cloud growth slows, or if it signals heavier capital spending than investors expect, traders could treat Friday’s jump as a burst of positioning and sell the stock back down.
Microsoft said it will report fiscal second-quarter results after the market close on Wednesday, Jan. 28, and hold a conference call at 2:30 p.m. Pacific time. Traders will parse the outlook for Azure, corporate software demand and any comments on AI-related spending.
Earlier on Jan. 28, the Fed is scheduled to release its policy decision at 2:00 p.m. Eastern time, followed by a press conference at 2:30 p.m. The combination puts rate-sensitive mega-cap tech, including Microsoft, in focus for the next midweek test.
