The 2026 Q1 earnings season faces its busiest week yet, with a wide variety of notable companies on deck to report. Headlining the docket is a bunch of Magnificent 7 members whose sentiment is driven by cloud results, specifically Alphabet GOOGL, Microsoft MSFT, and Amazon AMZN.
Of the trio, Amazon and Alphabet have outperformed nicely relative to the S&P 500, whereas Microsoft shares have lagged YTD, as shown below.
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Amazon Web Services (AWS)
EPS revisions for the upcoming release have shown a bit of negativity, with the current $1.61 Zacks Consensus EPS estimate down roughly 6% over the last several months. Revenue revisions have remained more positive with the $177.5 billion estimate up by a modest 1.2% over the same timeframe. Growth is expected to be delivered again, with the estimates suggesting 1.3% YoY earnings growth on 14.3% higher sales.
Regarding AWS, the most important part of the release, our consensus estimate stands at $36.8 billion, reflecting 25.6% YoY growth. An accelerating/decelerating growth rate among AWS remains the biggest sentiment driver behind the post-earnings reaction, with the forecasted 25.6% growth rate for the upcoming release beating out the prior period’s 23.6% YoY climb modestly.
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Microsoft Needs Acceleration
EPS revisions for Microsoft’s release have been positive, with the current $4.07 Zacks Consensus EPS estimate up by a slight 1.2% over the last several months. Revenue revisions have remained flat, though the stable-to-positive revisions we’ve seen across both the top and bottom lines are a nice positive given MSFT’s 2026 underperformance so far. Double-digit growth is expected for the tech giant, with the quarterly estimates reflecting 17.6% earnings growth on 16.2% higher sales.
Its Intelligent Cloud segment, which includes Azure, will again be the big focus concerning its post-share reaction. Sentiment has largely been beaten down in this business given flat growth rates over recent periods, though management has noted that the stagnation has mostly been due to capacity constraints. Our consensus estimate for Intelligent Cloud revenue stands at $34.3 billion, suggesting a 28.5% YoY growth rate and a slight uptick from the prior period’s 28% climb.
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Google Cloud Growth Remains Robust
Both EPS and sales expectations for Alphabet have been taken nicely higher over recent months, with the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate of $2.64 up 5.2% since the end of January. Likewise, the $92.2 billion sales estimate is 4% higher than it was for the same timeframe. Earnings are forecasted to fall 6% YoY, whereas sales are expected to see a strong 20.5% charge higher.
Concerning its Cloud results, our consensus estimate for Google Cloud revenue stands at $18.4 billion, reflecting a rock-solid 49.6% YoY growth rate and even surpassing last period’s 48% climb. The momentum within Google Cloud has been a big driver behind its broader outperformance over the last year, with its operating income in the segment also seeing great growth.
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Bottom Line
The 2026 Q1 earnings season has picked up considerably, with three Magnificent 7 companies with notable cloud exposure – Alphabet GOOGL, Microsoft MSFT, and Amazon AMZN – all on the docket this week. There are other members of the beloved bunch on the docket as well, such as Apple and Meta.
The post-earnings reaction of all three stocks above will nearly all be driven by their respective cloud results, with investors likely to reward accelerating growth and punishing any signs of slowdown or stagnation. MSFT has been in the spotlight as of late on the development, with its YoY cloud growth rates not pleasing investors and leading to its weak performance throughout 2026. Alphabet, on the other hand, has been rewarded, outperforming nicely and reflecting the overall strongest Mag 7 performer over the last year.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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