For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – May 4, 2026 – Zacks.com releases the list of companies likely to issue earnings surprises. This week’s list includes Alphabet GOOGL, Meta META, Microsoft MSFT and Nvidia NVDA.
The Enormous Earnings Power of the Mag 7 Companies
Alphabet shares were already star performers before the company’s Q1 earnings release on Wednesday, making some of us anxious that the stock might be priced for perfection. But they literally hit it out of the park, with impressive momentum not just in the cloud business but also search, subscriptions, and backlog.
With Alphabet management more than answering the AI monetization question through these record results, the market didn’t lose a beat over further increases in capital expenditures. The company expects to spend in the $180 billion to $190 billion range now, up from the previous guided range of $175 billion to $185 billion.
Amazon’s Q1 results weren’t Alphabet-good, but they were nevertheless very strong, with cloud revenues showing clear acceleration and growing at their fastest pace since 2022 at +28%. The growth pace is expected to pick up further in Q2 and beyond, given new deals with Meta, Anthropic, and OpenAI.
Amazon’s 2026 Q1 cloud revenue growth of +28% follows growth rates of +24% and +20% in 2025 Q4 and Q3, respectively. Alphabet’s cloud revenue growth was in a league of its own, up +63%, which follows growth rates of +48% in 2025 Q4 and an estimated +35% to +40% in 2025 Q3. Unlike Alphabet and Amazon, Microsoft disappointed once again, coming up short in its results and commentary for the third quarter in a row.
The only reason why someone would find fault with Microsoft’s +29% cloud revenue growth is that the company’s growth pace in each of the preceding two quarters was in a comparable range. Microsoft has long noted capacity issues weighing on its cloud growth, which seems plausible since Alphabet also noted this issue.
Microsoft shares have been true laggards in the Mag 7 group, down -14.5% this year vs. Alphabet’s +23.1% rise and the S&P 500 index’s +6.2% gain. The company has been swept up in the software turmoil, so the issue isn’t the stalled cloud unit. Microsoft had also banked heavily on OpenAI for its LLM, and that relationship has unraveled ‘bigly’. It is reasonable to expect that they will eventually get there, after all, they have the resources and people, but it will likely take them a while.
At this stage in the Q1 reporting cycle, Nvidia is the only Mag 7 member that has yet to report March-quarter results. Nvidia is scheduled to report Q1 results on May 20th, with EPS and revenues for the period expected to be up +118.5% and +78.7% from the same period last year, respectively.
Combining the actual results for the 6 Magnificent 7 members that have reported already with estimates for Nvidia, total Q1 earnings for the group are expected to be up +45.7% from the same period last year on +24.6% higher revenues, which would follow the group’s +26.1% earnings growth on +19.4% revenue growth in 2025 Q4.
Please note that the Mag 7 group is on track to bring in 26.2% of all S&P 500 earnings in 2026 and account for 34.1% of the index’s market capitalization.
The Mag 7 group has been enjoying a steadily improving earnings outlook, with analysts raising their estimates. We saw that trend in play ahead of the start of the Q1 earnings season, and something similar is in place for 2026 Q1 as well.
2026 Q1 Earnings Season Scorecard
Through Friday, May 1st, we have seen Q1 results from 317 S&P 500 members or 63.4% of the index’s total membership. Total earnings for these 317 index members are up +23.4% from the same period last year on +11.1% higher revenues, with 78.5% beating EPS estimates and 77.9% beating revenue estimates.
We have another very busy week on the reporting front, with more than 1400 companies reporting results, including 127 S&P 500 members. We have a good blend of notable ‘new age’ tech players like Palantir, Uber, Airbnb, DoorDash, and Pinterest, and ‘legacy blue chip’ operators like McDonald's, Disney, and DuPont on deck to report results this week.
For a detailed look at the overall earnings picture, including expectations for the coming periods, please check out our weekly Earnings Trends report >>>>A Strong & Steadily Improving Earnings Picture
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