By William Dahl
Publication Date: 2026-02-02 14:36:00
Last week’s sell-off made shares cheaper than they’ve been in years.
You know that expectations for a company are sky high when it can report a 60% year-over-year jump in profits, a 17% rise in revenue, a 45% increase in users of its flagship product, and $12.7 billion returned to shareholders that quarter … and the stock still tanks by 10% the next day. Microsoft (MSFT 0.36%) was the victim of this expectations hit last Thursday, as Wall Street digested its Q2 2026 earnings report released the day before. The sell-off wiped away a staggering $357 billion from the tech giant’s market capitalization.
Analysts pointed to slower-than-expected growth in its cloud computing segment, as well as concerns over its plans to ramp up spending on data centers. Are analysts right to be rattled? Or are they overreacting as the company pivots in ways they don’t fully grasp?
Here’s what the numbers say.
Image source: Getty Images.
What’s troubling Wall Street about Microsoft
Microsoft Cloud…
