All eyes are on earnings from major tech heavyweights expected Wednesday, particularly as this week’s DeepSeek-fueled tech sell-off has led to further scrutiny on the high valuations and artificial intelligence ambitions of U.S. technology stocks. With Meta Platforms , Tesla and Microsoft each set to report quarterly results after the market close, CNBC Pro combed through several analyst reports to find the most important figures Wall Street will key on from these companies. Eyes on Meta’s AI capex spending of around $60 billion Citi analyst Ronald Josey is one of the many analysts who expects a significant AI capital expenditures ramp-up from Meta this year. He forecasts roughly $58 billion in capex spending ahead. Other firms have similar expectations — Goldman called for total capex of $60.2 billion, and JPMorgan projected $64 billion. These investments also make Meta a long-term AI play, analysts say, particularly as optimism on the company’s advertising growth, Instagram Reels potential and capex spending investments remains high. Josey recently named Meta his top internet pick. He predicts the company will beat expectations in its upcoming report and show improving engagement and monetization gains amid a healthy online advertising market. “Bigger picture, we believe Meta’s product super-cycle can deliver multiple vectors of growth as its investments in CapEx further deepens its product moat,” Josey said in a Jan. 20 note. He added that Meta’s products — such as Meta AI, search, Llama, AI agent tools for creators and small businesses, and Reels advertisements — all present growth opportunities for the company. Goldman and JPMorgan are also bullish on Meta’s revenue growth being driven by several AI-related advertising growth opportunities in areas such as in Reels, Meta AI, Llama AI models, click-to-message advertising and improved content recommendations. Goldman analyst Eric Sheridan has a particularly strong outlook on Meta’s revenue, forecasting potential compounded annual revenue growth in the mid-teens through 2025. He has a buy rating on the stock. “We continue to view META as well-positioned against several long-term secular growth themes and are encouraged by the positive momentum across key product initiatives incl. Reels, click-to-messaging Ads and AI,” Sheridan said in a Jan. 13 note to clients. Wells Fargo remains overweight on Meta shares but is one name that’s more cautious on the stock in the near term given the potential for a slowdown in ad spending after a strong holiday season. Still, the firm has a $685 price target and views the stock as an earnings compounder and “accelerating growth story.” Watching Tesla’s year-over-year delivery growth target Analysts are looking to see if Tesla can achieve its goal to increase deliveries by up to 30% this year, especially as the company has struggled with competition from Chinese EV makers and saw its first decline in annual vehicle sales last year. Tesla released an updated version of its Model Y crossover SUV earlier this week, ahead of its expected launch in the first half of this year of a more affordable Model Y car that the carmaker hopes could boost sales. Goldman Sachs analyst Mark Delaney is modeling 12% year-over-year growth in deliveries, significantly below Tesla’s 20% to 30% target. “We believe that how quickly production of the new Model Y ramps, and when Tesla launches new model(s) will be key variables in terms of how fast Tesla grows,” he said in a Jan. 15 note. Delaney does expect Tesla to be well-positioned in the long run but sees several potential risk factors ahead, expecting the ramp in full self-driving technology to take longer than Tesla is currently forecasting and 2025 delivery numbers to be lower than the company’s outlook. The analyst has a neutral rating on the stock. Analysts in general are split on Tesla. LSEG data shows that 23 of 52 who cover the EV maker rate it a buy or strong buy. However, 25 have a hold or underperform rating, while four recommend selling it outright. Tesla shares have slipped about 2% in early 2025. That said, they are up more than 100% over the past year. Looking at Microsoft’s Azure revenue Analysts are watching for Microsoft to prove accelerating growth in its Azure cloud-computing business, particularly as the company has steadily underperformed the Nasdaq Composite and all its megacap tech peers over the past year. Azure growth has now slowed for two straight quarters. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in October that the company’s AI business is on track to surpass an annual revenue run rate of $10 billion by the fiscal second quarter, making it “the fastest business in our history to reach this milestone.” The question now, according to Bernstein analyst Mark Moerdler, is how much greater than $10 billion in revenue the company will see — and whether the report indicates AI revenue for the fourth quarter. Moerdler has one of the more bullish price targets among Wall Street analysts, giving the stock an outperform rating and $516 target, which indicates 15.4% potential upside. “We believe expectations are relatively muted for Azure setting the stock up well,” he said in a Monday note. “Azure has become a critical factor in driving growth for Microsoft and how Azure does through the end of FY could be quite impactful on the stock.” Analysts polled by FactSet expect Microsoft’s earnings to come out at $3.16 per share on overall revenue of $68.87 billion. Microsoft’s shares are up about 6.1% this year and 11.5% over the past year. Microsoft’s cheaper valuation against its peers and bets on its Azure growth are also behind Goldman Sachs’ and Piper Sandler’s expectations on its strong quarterly performance. Piper Sandler said it’s optimistic on Microsoft exceeding its $10 billion revenue goal driven by greater Azure workloads. That would reinforce the company’s “value of a first-mover advantage in AI,” the firm wrote in a Monday note, noting that Azure is looking to beat a $100 billion run rate annually by March 2026, driven by increasing customer demand for its AI services. “This milestone elevates MSFT into one of the few technology platforms not only showing real-world monetization but also an impressive growth trajectory driven by broad enterprise adoption,” analyst Brent Bracelin said in the note. “There are few AI business models operating at $10B+ scale yet still growing triple-digits.”
Key figures Wall Street is watching for in META, MSFT, TSLA earnings
