Among S&P 500 stocks, there are few, if any, that are considered a buy by 100% of the Wall Street analysts who cover them. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find even one.
FactSet Research, a leading provider of financial data, compiled a list of S&P 500 stocks with the most buy ratings at the end of 2025. At the time, only one stock was rated a buy by 100% of analysts: Qnity Electronics. But since then, one analyst downgraded it to a hold, so its buy rate is now 90%.
That left technology giant Microsoft (MSFT 0.73%) as the S&P 500 stock that is getting the most love from Wall Street, with 97% of analysts rating it as a buy, 3% calling it a hold, and 0% recommending a sell.
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The median price target for the 64 analysts who cover Microsoft is $631 per share, which would indicate that they see a roughly 37% return for the stock over the next 12 months. The only other "Magnificent Seven" stocks that come close are Amazon (AMZN 1.52%), which 95% rate as a buy, and Meta Platforms, a buy according to 92% of analysts.
Why are analysts so bullish on Microsoft stock -- and should you be? Let's take a look.
Gaining market share in cloud computing
For Microsoft, it's mostly about its strength in artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing. It continues to gain market share (fueled by its Azure platform) and close the gap with market leader Amazon Web Services. As of the end of the third quarter of 2025, Amazon's market share dipped below 30% to around 29%, while Microsoft climbed to about 22%.
NASDAQ: MSFT
Key Data Points
In the latest quarter, the Azure platform, which is used for more complex AI cloud computing, saw revenue grow 40%, contributing in a big way to the 28% growth the company experienced in its Intelligent Cloud segment.
Within its cloud business, the remaining performance obligations (RPOs) -- which are contracts signed but not yet executed -- increased by 51% to $392 billion. That includes a massive $250 billion commitment from OpenAI to use its Azure cloud platform.
In its outlook for the fiscal second quarter ended Dec. 31, Microsoft called for revenue of $79.5 billion to $80.6 billion, or 14% to 16% year-over-year growth. The Azure and Intelligent Cloud business is expected to see 37% growth.
Doubling its AI data center footprint
Another potential long-term growth driver for Microsoft is its big push into AI data centers. In the latest quarter, Microsoft announced that it was investing $34.9 billion in capital expenditures, with about half of that going to develop and expand data centers. Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella said on the Q1 2026 earnings call:
We have the most expansive data center fleet for the AI era, and we are adding capacity at an unprecedented scale. We will increase our total AI capacity by over 80% this year and roughly double our total data center footprint over the next two years, reflecting the demand signals we see.
Microsoft stock has been dropping lately, mainly over broader concerns related to AI capex spending. Many investors are wondering whether the massive spending on AI will translate to returns. This may be true for many AI stocks, but not for Microsoft and the other cloud providers. Microsoft provides the essential infrastructure to power AI investments, so its capital spending is critical to its growth.
The fact that Microsoft shares are down about 9% over the past six months and 5% year to date (YTD) makes this a particularly good time to invest in Microsoft, given its growth projections. It is trading at a reasonable 32 times earnings and just 28 times forward earnings, which is right around the Nasdaq-100 average.
Ultimately, it is hard to argue with the nearly unanimous chorus of analysts who say Microsoft is a buy. And if you already own it, it might be a good opportunity to double down.
