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Skip NavigationMarketsBusinessInvestingTechPolitics & PolicyVideoWatchlistInvesting ClubPROLivestreamMenuMicrosoft received price target increases from a pair of Wall Street firms — one was quite bullish, while the other was more cautious. Starting with the good news, Cantor Fitzgerald went to $608 per share from $522 on Microsoft, representing about 23% upside from Friday’s closing level of around $494. Analysts are enthused about Microsoft’s accelerated growth and strong fundamentals, pointing to the company’s cloud computing business, Azure. They kept their buy-equivalent overweight rating. “Growth here is accelerating, driven by faster deployment of capacity as well as other hardware and software efficiencies, with the overall business continuing to be capacity constrained,” Cantor analysts wrote in a Sunday note. In Microsoft’s fiscal 2026 fourth quarter , Azure revenue growth rose to 43%, exceeding the 39% to 40% outlook management provided on the previous quarter’s post-earnings conference call. Despite continued capacity constraints, Cantor notes that Microsoft has since guided Azure growth to roughly 44.5% at the midpoint for the fiscal first quarter of 2027. Cantor is pleased with that cloud growth acceleration, which came without any increases to Microsoft’s capital expenditure outlook. Breaking ranks with its hyperscaler rivals and holding the line on capex guide was also music to our ears on July 29, the night of Microsoft’s earnings. The stock surged 15.5% the next day, and it has tacked nearly 10% more since then. MSFT YTD mountain Microsoft YTD Turning to the not-so-good news, Rothschild & Co. Redburn also raised its Microsoft price target, but going to $440 from $400 was not exactly a ringing endorsement, as $440 is 10% below Friday’s close. In their Monday note, the analysts did not turn completely bearish, maintaining their hold-equivalent neutral rating. While also encouraged by Microsoft’s Azure growth and capex outlook, Rothschild analysts are concerned about the underlying economics of the AI infrastructure buildout. That caution followed Anthropic calling for a coordinated slowdown on AI model releases, citing safety concerns. OpenAI agreed. It was the debate that raged all last week and put likes of Nvidia and President Donald Trump on the other side, saying individual companies ought to make their own decisions on when it’s safe to release their products to the market. We came down on the side that AI pacing won’t happen because it’s not in the U.S. interest to slow things down when there is no enforceable mechanism for the rest of the world, namely China. Trump is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday. AI and trade are expected to top the agenda. We’ll have to see if any of that changes. In addition to AI spending worries, however, the Rothschild analysts pointed out hyperscalers’ long-term contracts, leases, and other commitments that aren’t reflected on their balance sheets. Once factored in, Rothschild argued that their expenses are materially higher. According to the analysts, Microsoft stands out the most. “Microsoft screens as the most exposed, with approximately $330 billion of uncommenced lease commitments, followed by Meta and Oracle .” They continued, “This reduces their capacity to continue backstopping the next phase of investment just as the underlying deals are becoming riskier, increasingly shifting the financing burden elsewhere.” The dynamic has Rothschild questioning the “quality of the growth” being generated. “Among the hyperscalers, we remain more cautious on Amazon and Microsoft,” analysts wrote, but they also see Alphabet and Oracle as problematic, arguing that underlying leverage for all of these companies is much higher than what’s being reported. Bottom line As for the Club, Jim Cramer’s faith in Microsoft was renewed following the company’s surprisingly strong fiscal fourth quarter. Prior to the release, Jim had grown frustrated and even disappointed in the cloud and software giant amid concerns of AI disruption along with the perception that its Copilot AI assistant was lagging. But Jim is now more confident in Microsoft’s ability to benefit from the massive AI infrastructure buildout. “I think we’re going to see Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet put out some spectacular data center numbers by this time next year,” Jim said during the Club’s September Monthly Meeting . “But it is going to take by this time this year.” Earlier this month , we raised our Microsoft price target to $550 from $500. We maintain our hold-equivalent 2 rating — not yet ready to chase the rally since those late July earnings. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long MSFT, AMZN, and GOOGL. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. 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