- Stifel lifted its Microsoft target 18% to $530, citing accelerating M365 Copilot adoption, Azure efficiency gains, and fiscal Q4 2026 Azure growth of 43%.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot ended FY26 with more than 30 million paid seats, while Azure generated $29.4 billion in quarterly revenue and $101.9 billion for FY26; investors still need evidence that AI revenue and consumption justify roughly $145 billion of FY26 infrastructure spending.
- Stifel remains cautious because Google competition is intensifying, Microsoft's OpenAI advantage is diminishing, and elevated AI capex is pressuring cloud margins.