24/7 Wall St. sets a 12-month price target of $431.74 for Alphabet (GOOG), implying 26.86% upside from $340.34, with a buy rating. The case rests on Google Cloud, where growth accelerated to 82% and operating margin rose to 35.6% from 20.7%, backed by a $514 billion backlog. Yet the stock sat at $337.82, 16.4% below its $403.96 52-week high. Risks include 2026 capex guidance of $175–185 billion, Q2 free cash flow of -$5.86 billion, long-term debt rising to $98.2 billion from $46.5 billion, paused buybacks, and a stock sale program of up to $40 billion. The article notes Alphabet trades at a 22x forward multiple, well below Microsoft and Meta.
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Related tickers and likely impact
MSFT
▲ Likely positiveMicrosoft
Relevance: low
| Market | US stocks |
|---|---|
| Sector | Information Technology |
| Industry | Systems Software |
| Market cap | $4.0T |
| Close on 10/21/2026 | 532.95 |
| Change that session | +0.20% |
Impact is scored by AI from the headline and may be wrong. It is not investment advice.
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Microsoft closed at $541.13 in the latest session, up 1.13%, while the S&P 500 fell 0.06% and the Nasdaq lost 0.44%. Over the past month, the stock gained 7.96%, outperforming the Computer and Technology sector's 4.85% and the S&P 500's 2.36%. Microsoft is scheduled to report earnings on October 28, 2026, with analysts expecting EPS of $4.71, up 14.04% year over year, and revenue of $90.6 billion, up 16.64%. Full-year Zacks Consensus estimates call for EPS of $19.65 and revenue of $390.2 billion, representing increases of 9.47% and 17.59%. Microsoft currently holds a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold), and its forward P/E of 27.24 is above the industry average of 16.72.
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Microsoft trades at $531.47 on October 20, 2026, and 24/7 Wall St. sets a 12-month price target of $649.73, implying 22.3% upside with a buy rating. The rebound followed a strong fiscal fourth quarter in which revenue rose 17.75% to $90.01 billion, EPS of $4.74 beat the $4.24 consensus, Azure grew 43% and commercial RPO jumped 84% to $678 billion. The CFO says customer demand exceeds available capacity, and analyst ratings stand at 14 Strong Buys, 39 Buys and 2 Holds with no Sells. Risks include fiscal 2026 capex rising 79.62% to $115.95 billion, free cash flow falling 6.46%, and RPO excluding OpenAI growing only 25%. The bull case reaches $754.68, while the bear case is $548.92.
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Over the last ten years, $10,000 invested in Microsoft stock grew to $92,451 before dividends, versus $35,968 in the S&P 500. Microsoft stock fell 20% or more from a closing high four times, including a 37.6% drop from November 2021 to November 2022 that took about 19 months to recover to the previous peak. The most recent decline began at a closing high on October 28, 2025, fell 34.9% to a low on June 25, 2026, while the S&P 500 rose 6.8% over the same months. Revenue over twelve months kept growing through both falls, and the stock now sits 2.1% below its October 13, 2026 high.
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