Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares received a nice price target bump a week ahead of the software giant’s quarterly earnings release. The Microsoft Analyst: Piper Sandler analyst Brent Bracelin reiterated an Overweight rating on Microsoft shares and upped the price target from $465 to $485. The updated price target suggests the stock has about 10% upside potential. Microsoft took 13 years (from fiscal 2010 to 2023) to achieve a $100 billion annual revenue run-rate for its Cloud services business but the next $100 billion cloud revenue could come in just three years, said Bracelin in a note. Over the 13-years, capex and lease exceeded $176 billion, he noted. The critical data center investments should, therefore, be compressed to support a potential doubling of Microsoft Cloud revenue to $200 billion+ exiting fiscal year 2026, he said. “Growth investors should look beyond near-term fears of an AI overbuild with the lens of a broader cloud transformation still underway that ...