Microsoft Earnings Surprise Wall Street
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Microsoft posted a record $16.4 billion in revenue during the company's second business quarter, shattering its previous record by $2 billion. The software giant also blew away Wall Street expectations by recording a 92 percent rise in quarterly earnings in comparison with the year-earlier period.
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Stocks were little changed on Friday as optimism that fueled a sharp two-day rally faded on rumors of more trouble in the global financial sector, overshadowing strong earnings from Microsoft Corp and Caterpillar Inc.
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Microsoft Corp.&#39;s quarterly earnings rose 11 percent over the comparable quarter last year, but projections for the current quarter were mixed.
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Microsoft made almost $3 billion in profit in the past quarter, but it was Google that captured investors&#39; fancy yesterday. The current and former Wall Street darlings reported their earnings after the stock
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Amid strong PC demand from consumers and businesses, Microsoft reported on Thursday quarterly revenue and earnings that topped the company&#39;s earlier expectations.
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Though the macroeconomic picture remains cloudy, major IT vendors, such as Apple, Microsoft, and EMC, for the most part reported solid third-quarter earnings this week, giving technology investors hope for the rest of the year.Thursday was a busy day on Wall Street with Microsoft, EMC, and Motorola reporting.After the market closed,&#160;Microsoft reported a 23 percent quarterly jump in net income, which hit $4.29 billion as demand for Windows and Office software remained strong. Revenue was $13.76 billion, a 27 increase from one year earlier. The company said it was the fastest revenue growth spurt for their first fiscal quarter since 1999, around the height of the dot-com boom. That should help reassure some investors that despite concerns about the U.S. economy, at least certain areas of the IT sector are still managing to show strong growth.In after-hours trading right after the announcement, Microsoft shares rose by $1.98 to $33.98.EMC&#39;s profit jumped&#160;as the data-storage company made gains on the sale of part of its stake in virtualization software maker VMware. EMC reported that net income was $492.9 million, compared with a profit of $283.7 million last year. Revenue jumped to $3.3 billion from $2.8 billion a year earlier. Though much of the gains were from&#160;a one-time sale of part of VMware to Cisco, other parts of the business did well: Software rose 25 percent, storage business sales rose 9 percent, and service grew 25 percent. EMC shares rose $1.92 on the news, to close at $24.45.Motorola, meanwhile, reported an abrupt drop, of 94 percent, in quarterly profit, as it searched to find a follow-up to its Razr mobile phone. Net income was $60 million, while revenue fell 17 percent to $8.81 billion. Nevertheless investors apparently were heartened that the company saw small boosts in the average selling price for mobile devices -- something that even mighty Nokia did not experience last quarter.Motorola forecast earnings from continuing operations for the fourth quarter of $0.12 to $0.14 a share, while analysts had expected earnings of $0.10. So even though profit was way down, company shares managed to jump $0.75 to $19.30 Thursday.Apple kicked off the week on a high note, on Monday reporting solid earnings that were fueled by record Mac sales and shipments of 1.12 million iPhones. The company handily beat analyst estimates with income of $904 million, 67 percent higher than a year earlier. Earnings per share were $1.01. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial had forecast $760.45 million in net income and earnings of $0.84 per share. Apple jumped $11.80 to close at $186.16 the day after its earnings report. Even though Apple shares have been trading at all-time highs, the common wisdom on Wall Street is that things will get even better.Brokerages like Goldman Sachs and UBS reiterated &quot;buy&quot; ratings and Citi Investment Research headlined its report: &quot;The Best Is Yet To Come.&quot; With the new Mac OS, Leopard, going to market on Friday, sales are expected to do well through the holiday season.Still, concerns about the U.S. economy linger. With the price of oil skyrocketing and the housing-market crisis making headlines, investors remain worried that economic concerns will weigh on IT sales. But earnings from the major IT bellwethers over the last few weeks are showing that technology is proving to be resilient, so far.
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Microsoft today reported first quarter 2005 revenue of $9.19 billion and net income of $2.9 billion, figures that exceeded the company's guidance from July.
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Microsoft Corp  signaled confidence to a rattled stock market by raising its full-year profit outlook above Wall Street targets and reporting a 79 percent rise in quarterly profit on Thursday.
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Microsoft beat Wall Street expectations for both revenue and EPS (earnings per share) for its fiscal 2008 second quarter, attributing its strong quarter to sales of core client products, such as Windows Vista and Office 2007, as well as Exchange and SharePoint server software.For the quarter ended Dec. 31, Microsoft reported revenue of $16.37 billion, an increase of 30 percent year over year and a number that solidly beat the $15.95 billion in revenue that Thomson Financial analysts had estimated. Last year for the same period, Microsoft reported $12.54 billion in revenue.Diluted earnings per share were $0.50, an increase of 92 percent over the $0.27 in EPS reported last year, and $0.04 higher than Thomson Financial estimates of $0.46. Operating income for the quarter was $6.48 billion, an increase of 92 percent from the $3.47 billion reported for the same period last year.Microsoft&#39;s year-over-year percentage growth is higher than normal due to a deferral of $1.64 billion in revenue and operating income, as well as $0.11 of diluted earnings per share from the second to the third quarter of fiscal 2007. This deferred revenue contributed to the higher-than-average second-quarter percentage growth. Without these deferrals, second-quarter growth rates for revenue, operating income and earnings per share would be 15 percent, 27 percent and 32 percent, respectively, for the quarter reported Thursday.Ahead of Microsoft&#39;s announcement, analysts had expected the company to report a strong quarter even among economic uncertainty and fears that the U.S. economy is entering a recession.Microsoft&#39;s client business, on sales of Windows Vista, was especially strong in the quarter, with $4.34 billion in revenue compared to $2.59 billion in revenue a year ago. According to Microsoft, its client business has grown 20 percent on average since Windows Vista was made available nearly a year ago, and the company believes Vista began hitting its stride for adoption among customers and partners in the second quarter. According to Microsoft, it has sold more than 100 million licenses for Vista.Looking ahead to the next quarter, which ends March 31, Microsoft said Thursday that it expects revenue in the range of $14.3 billion to $14.6 billion; operating income in the range of $5.6 billion to $5.7 billion; and diluted earnings per share in the range of $0.43 to $0.45.For the full fiscal year ending June 30, Microsoft expects revenue in the range of $59.9 billion to $60.5 billion; operating income in the range of $24.2 billion to $24.4 billion; and diluted EPS in the range of $1.85 to $1.88.
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Stocks rose on Friday after a higher profit forecast by Microsoft Corp.  lifted all three major indexes and an upbeat outlook by lender Countrywide Financial Corp.  stemmed fears of financial-sector losses.
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Investors reacted to a disappointing fourth-quarter earnings report that raised worries about the software makerâs ability to cope with tougher competition and a slowing U.S. economy.
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Microsoft, the world's largest maker of computer software,  reports an 11% rise in  quarterly profit but says sales may disappoint in the current period.
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Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) on Thursday said its quarterly profit climbed as revenue rose 12 percent, but its shares fell as investors failed to account for the effect
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Microsoft reported quarterly sales and profit gains that surpassed Wall Streetâs expectations, and delivered an optimistic outlook.
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Microsoft Corp. said its fiscal first-quarter earnings rose 11 percent, beating analysts' expectations, as the company benefited from stronger-than-expected computer and server shipments.
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Microsoft reported its profits surged 81 percent on record-high revenues of 16.37 billion dollars in the last three months of 2007 due to intense demand for computer software.
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US stocks rebounded on Monday after IBM surprised traders with some better-than-expected results, boosting confidence at the start of an important week for corporate earnings.