Microsoft Corporation, located in Redmond, Washington, shares soared to a high record, Friday after the software company reported first-quarter sales and earnings that hit the top.
The shares climbed as much as 5.6 percent to a record $60.45. The last time Microsoft was trading near that level was back in 1999. Profit excluding certain items was 76 cents a share on adjusted sales of $22.3 billion, the company said Thursday. Analysts estimated profit in the period ended Sept. 30 would be 68 cents on revenue of $21.7 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
PC and Other Devices
Microsoft Windows phone and the number of phones sold is dropping precipitously. Worldwide shipments of PC in the September quarter drop better than expected. Windows' share of the phone market is a rounding error compared to Android and iOS's. While Microsoft is selling its loss-prone feature phone business, the Surface hardware device business is not something that will create huge revenues for the company.
Windows and Games
Microsoft’s dependence on Windows sales still estimates for a major portion of its overall revenues although a few years ago it was considered as has the majority share of revenues. Gaming is moving to the cloud and being driven by Android and iOS mobile devices, resulting in a reduction in the sale of hardware Xboxes.
Windows and Xbox slipped 1.8 percent from a year ago to $9.29 billion.
Cloud
"Cloud is growing significantly and Azure represents incremental new revenue," said Mark Moerdler, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., who rates the shares outperform. "Commercial cloud is driving revenue growth, which is somewhat hidden by the fact that Nokia is going to zero."
Up until now, Microsoft is giving consumers better and more reliable software and gadgets. I know in their office, they are still finding ways to make their loyal costumers stick to them. Congratulations to Microsoft for achieving a hit on the market store!