Wall Street is gearing up for the biggest earnings day for megacap tech, with reports from Meta , Microsoft and Alphabet due out after Wednesday’s market close. Investors are keeping a close eye on how the biggest tech names perform as these results could be the factor that pushes stocks to further heights — or leads to an unwind of the bull market. Tech earnings have grown crucial in recent years, particularly amid the rise of artificial intelligence. A select group of megacap companies are trading at record levels, with just eight — Nvidia , Microsoft, Apple , Alphabet, Amazon , Meta, Tesla and Broadcom — making up roughly 37% of the S & P 500. Analysts are looking for key clues to gauge AI growth, spending and performance from each of the three tech giants reporting Wednesday. From Meta, for example, Bank of America analyst Justin Post expects a clear revenue beat but is looking for updates on the company’s AI deals and industry competition, particularly as ChatGPT-maker OpenAI is focusing more on ads and social media. Concerns remain about Meta’s significant AI spending and how it will manifest in long-term growth. Google parent Alphabet is also under scrutiny about its AI positioning and how its search business fares against increasing chatbot competition, even as its shares have recovered in recent weeks. “With reports of additional AI hiring, potential LLM & infrastructure deals, and OpenAI social competition, we think updates on Meta’s AI outlook will be a call focus and critical for sentiment. Also, Meta will report concurrently with Alphabet & we think investors will focus on revenue growth differentials & relative margin performance,” Post wrote in an Oct. 21 note to clients. Ahead of Microsoft’s results, analysts are watching to see if the company can build on its strong report from the previous quarter and show momentum in its Azure business and growth in PC shipments. For all three, OpenAI remains a competitive force in areas such as advertising, search and social media, which several analysts acknowledge as a potential risk to upside moving forward. Shares of Meta and Microsoft have each gained more than 28% year to date, while Alphabet stock is up roughly 41% this year. For Meta, it’s all about AI spending and ad growth Bank of America: Buy rating, $900 price target “Ad checks have been constructive, and another quarter of strong ad growth & guide could help reinforce confidence in the durability of Meta’s AI ad engine,” analyst Justin Post said in an Oct. 21 note. “AI roadmap for 2026 key for stock sentiment, and we think Meta can build optimism on both potential LLM innovation and products (video creative tools for users to compete with OpenAI?) and AI benefits to ad revs. (a fully automated ad platform). At ~$732, stock valued at 23x 2026 EPS (vs historical avg. of 21x) or 19x excl. RL losses, which we see as attractive given AI assets & early stage of AI monetization opportunity.” Deutsche Bank: Buy rating, $930 price target “Positioning for Meta heading into earnings has been soft, trading down 5% since 2Q, results, underperforming the market by 12% with the S & P 500 up 6%. With that backdrop, we tend to favor the stock into the print given the favorable set-up, alongside very strong data and ad checks,” analyst Benjamin Black wrote in an Oct. 21 note. “Near-term trends and checks suggest a positive top-line revision cycle this print, but expense concerns alongside more structural GenAI progress issues appear to be currently weighing on valuation. If management is able to counter either of these overhangs, we would expect a positive valuation multiple revision to accompany the positive top-line momentum.” Truist: Buy rating, lifted price target by $20 to $900 “We remain constructive on META into earnings and expect results to be in line / slightly ahead of our +22% Y/Y revenue growth est. (high-end of guidance). Results should reflect strong user engagement and improving monetization from better ranking and recommendation,” analyst Youssef Squali wrote in an Oct. 24 note. “It remains one of our favorite names, driven by AI improvements unlocking better ranking and recommendation models, which is helping improve targeting and ad efficiency, and drive spend on the platform. Higher monetization of Threads and WhatsApp should help sustain growth, and we see materially higher contribution from AR/VR products with strength from the Ray-Ban (EssilorLuxottica, ESLOY, NR) initiative.” Morgan Stanley: Overweight rating, $850 price target “We see META delivering better than expected ad results and guide as 1) Ad conversations remain among the most positive in the space and we think accelerating engagement growth and improving ad targeting/performance are set to drive continued outsized ad dollar growth and 2) The runway for further GPU enabled machine learning (ML) improvements seems long (Andromeda ML ad retrieval algorithm not yet rolled to Instagram, GEM ad ranking model still not served to all surfaces across META’s family of apps, including Instagram and parts of Facebook),” analyst Brian Nowak wrote in an Oct. 19 note. Analysts eye wins in Alphabet’s AI, cloud businesses Bernstein: Market perform rating, lifted price target by $50 to $260 “Post 2Q print, regulatory headwinds cleared the worst case off the table, the company’s shipping cadence of AI tools and features ramped noticeably highlighted by Gemini’s run to the top of the app store thanks to Nano Banana, and we continue to see solid progress within GCP led by increased Anthropic consumption and a strong portfolio of AI logo wins,” Mark Shmulik wrote in a Oct. 22 note to clients. “Is Google an AI winner now? Not so fast, OpenAI is still there, and they aren’t the only ones going after the AI chatbot market and yet to launch an ad product. But Google is a much easier stock to own today than 3 months ago and we’re encouraged by the progress we’ve seen. We expect this progress to continue this quarter highlighted by re-acceleration in the cloud business.” Morgan Stanley: Overweight rating, $270 price target “We see Search revisions driving EPS upside and Google Cloud results (and its backlog) driving narrative and multiple with GOOGL being a GenAI driver and winner,” Nowak wrote in an Oct. 19 note. “We also believe the launch of Gemini 3.0 in 4Q (and new capabilities around Veo, Nana Banana, and Agentic Search across categories like e-commerce, travel, and grocery) is likely to matter to investor confidence in GOOGL’s AI positioning and the multiple investors are willing to place on the asset heading into ’26.” Bank of America: Buy rating, $280 price target “We expect another quarter of strong search results ( & stable paid click growth) and, while macro driven, could further alleviate AI disruption risk & aid multiple expansion,” Post said in an Oct. 20 note. “Also, expect management to highlight recent Gemini usage momentum. On Cloud side, recent deals could aid backlog growth & we remain constructive on the segment’s increasing value contribution for stock.” Microsoft results hinge on AI cloud monetization Bank of America: Buy rating, $640 price target “We are bullish on upward revisions to Microsoft’s CapEx, which would likely be a catalyst for the stock. We see a couple of other potential catalysts, namely 1) upward revisions to the flat margin outlook as we move through FY26 and 2) accelerating commercial office growth, from 14%, driven by ongoing E3/E5 and copilot strength as we move through FY26. Maintain Buy, $640 PO; a top pick. We believe that Microsoft is well positioned to participate in the AI cycle in both the application and infrastructure markets,” analyst Brad Sills said in an Oct. 20 note to clients. Wolfe Research: Outperform, $675 price target “We see upside to our previously modeled ~$150B Azure AI revenue (FY26-28), with our view that the new contract spans a similar window relating to 2032 exclusivity. Together, and most importantly, this open marriage extends MSFT’s monetization horizon with OpenAI, hedges against future model commoditization, and reinforce its leadership position across both AI infrastructure and model innovation,” analyst Alex Zukin wrote in a Tuesday note, referring to Microsoft’s and OpenAI’s new agreement announced on Tuesday. UBS: Buy rating, $650 price target “In our view, the risk/reward on near-term Azure growth skews positive … the tone from enterprise customers and partners has improved again, with large Azure partners citing accelerating growth trends,” analyst Karl Keirstead wrote in a Oct. 21 note. “On the AI/GPU front, demand trends from OpenAI in particular appear to be strong and Microsoft is standing up incremental AI infra capacity (note the Fairwater go-live).” Deutsche Bank: Buy rating, $630 price target “As for the quarter itself, we think high-30s @cc Azure growth is a reasonable bogey, weighing our checks pointing toward sustained momentum in Azure consumption + commits and guidance for an increasing mix of more immediate revenue generating CapEx (i.e., servers & networking) vs. ongoing supply constraints, particularly for AI services,” analyst Brad Zelnick wrote in an Oct. 23 note to clients. “We also see opportunity for outperformance in Windows from upgrade cycle tailwinds and more resilient PC shipments, Search and LinkedIn from positive trends in digital ad spending, and opportunity for share gains in Dynamics. Leverage to top-line upside along with headcount growth that has slowed to flat y/y and AI savings also bode well for y/y operating margin expansion and EPS upside.”