Microsoft (MSFT) / Bill Gates 02 (Apr 18 - Dec 27)

[winston]

vested

Microsoft

This legacy technology leader has a massive $133.8 billion sitting on the balance sheet.

Microsoft Inc. (NASDAQ: MSFT) manufactures, licenses and supports a wide range of software products. The company has transformed its business model from a component-driven model (PC, server) to one driven by the need for cloud capacity. It is also considered one of the best companies to work for.

Many Wall Street analysts agree that Microsoft has become a clear number two in the public or hyper-scale cloud infrastructure market with Azure, which is the company’s cloud computing platform offerings, and which continues growing at triple-digit levels. Some have flagged Azure as the biggest rival to Amazon’s AWS service.

Microsoft reported strong fiscal second-quarter results across the board, with Azure accelerating to an impressive 64% year-over-year growth rate from 63% last quarter. Total revenue growth was 15%, and management guided double-digit revenue growth and 2% of operating margin expansion in fiscal 2020.

The analysts see strong visibility into double-digit percentage revenue growth, supported by multiple drivers (Intelligent Cloud, Productivity & Business Processes) and secular trends for the foreseeable future.

Shareholders receive a 1.5% dividend. The Merrill Lynch price target is $200. The consensus price objective is $194.19, and Microsoft stock closed Tuesday at $168.07.

Source: 24/7 Wall St

[winston]

vested

Microsoft Shares Fall As Company Warns Of Q3 Earnings Miss Due To Coronavirus Impact
Benzinga

by Neer Varshney

The Redmond-based company said that the continued spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), especially in China, has affected the sales in its "More Personal Computing" segment, with Windows operating system and Surface laptops.

"As a result, for the third quarter of fiscal year 2020, we do not expect to meet our More Personal Computing segment guidance as Windows OEM and Surface are more negatively impacted than previously anticipated."

It only gets about 1.8% of its revenue from the world's second-largest economy, as reported by Bloomberg at the time.

Like most technology companies making hardware, it relies on China mainly for the manufacturing supply chain.

Source: Benzinga

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/microsof ... 12115.html

[winston]

vested

Microsoft targets hindered by China virus spread

The coronavirus epidemic in China is hurting Microsoft more than expected, as the company said it will not meet targets that had already factored in the uncertainty.

In particular, Microsoft said revenue from Windows licenses and its Surface devices “are more negatively impacted than previously anticipated.”

The company said demand for Windows products is still strong, but getting the supply chain back to normal is taking longer. That goes for both Microsoft-made Surface devices and Windows products made by third parties, which include Acer and Lenovo.

Last month, Microsoft predicted it would make between US$10.75 billion and US$11.15 billion in revenue from its personal computing business in the January-March quarter.

Microsoft’s chief financial officer, Amy Hood, said on a January 29 earnings call that the company had widened the usual range for its revenue forecast because of the “uncertainty related to the public health situation in China.”

The company’s statement Wednesday suggests that the range was not wide enough to reflect the spread of the epidemic and its ongoing effects.

About a third of Microsoft’s revenue comes from Microsoft’s personal computing division, which houses the company’s Windows operating system, its line of Surface laptops and tablets, its Xbox gaming hardware and software and its Bing search service.

Microsoft didn’t say if its Xbox business has been affected by the supply chain problems.

Microsoft, which is based in Redmond, Washington, is among many tech companies relying on Chinese factories to make electronics devices and parts.

Source: AP

https://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking ... rus-spread

[winston]

vested

Coronavirus makes Microsoft stock an amazing money-making opportunity: top analyst

by Brian Sozzi

“Despite near-term worries, we believe Azure's cloud momentum is still in its early days of playing out within the company’s massive installed base, the Office 365 transition for both consumer/enterprise is providing growth tailwinds over the next 12 to 18 months (at least), and newer integrated product initiatives around consumers and cloud services (LinkedIn) are front and center,” Ives wrote in his most recent note on Microsoft to clients.

Ives has a $210 price target on Microsoft, representing at least 36% from current levels.

Source: Yahoo Finance

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/coronavi ... 19460.html

[winston]

vested

Microsoft MSFT is well poised to beat the coronavirus-induced recession fears, on the back of robust adoption of Azure cloud platform.

Moreover, work from home surge is expected to bolster adoption of its enterprise communication offerings including Teams. This, in turn, will provide it competitive edge in the enterprise communication market against Slack and Zoom.

This Zacks Rank #1 stock is also well-poised to gain from a growing user base of different applications like Office 365 commercial, Dynamics and Outlook mobile.

The company has a market cap of $1.115 trillion and dividend yield of 1.39%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Microsoft’s fiscal 2020 earnings is pegged at $5.62 per share, indicating 18.3% growth from the year-ago reported figure.

Source: Tech Stock Sensei

[winston]

not vested

Buy Microsoft When This Moment Comes

BY MICHAEL A. ROBINSON

Azure keeps gaining steam in its race with AWS. Azure’s growth for the quarter was up 39%, or $12.5 billion, compared to the same quarter last year.

Source: Strategic Investor

https://strategictechinvestor.com/2020/ ... 3A01%3A49Z

[winston]

not vested

Microsoft Stock

Microsoft stock is just below a buy point of 175.10 in a double-bottom base, though it has regained an early buy point of 170.10.

A bullish sign is the stock has reclaimed and held its 50-day line.

Microsoft undercut the key technical benchmark on Feb. 27, MarketSmith analysis shows. Its stock slipped after Microsoft warned that the coronavirus pandemic will hurt current-quarter revenue.

An option for conservative investors would be to wait until Microsoft stock passes a 180.10 entry point. MSFT stock will soon have a handle buy point there.

MSFT stock is a member of the prestigious IBD Long-Term Leaders list. Stocks on this list stabilize your portfolio but quietly deliver stellar long-term gains. To qualify as a Long-Term Leader a stock has to have stable earnings, stable price performance and high-quality institutional sponsorship. These can be bought on pullbacks or on breakouts. .

The relative strength line for Microsoft stock offers further reason for optimism. It is just off all-time highs, and has been climbing strongly during the coronavirus crisis. The RS line, the blue line in the charts below, tracks a stock's performance vs. the S&P 500.

Microsoft's successful pivot into cloud computing has been driving growth. During the coronavirus crisis, work-at-home and home schooling trends are fueling demand for Microsoft's cloud-based software and cloud-computing services.

Its Azure online services provide cloud computing infrastructure for enterprises. The company's Office 365 delivers productivity software for businesses and students. Its Microsoft Teams video calling, chat and collaboration suite keeps workers connected.

Analysts see Microsoft earnings rising by 18% in fiscal 2020, and 11% in 2021.

Microsoft is one of only a handful of U.S.-listed stocks with trillion-dollar market caps. Indeed, Microsoft stock is once again worth more than Apple, for now. In this case big is beautiful as Microsoft stock has an almost perfect IBD Composite Rating of 98.

For a deeper look at Microsoft check out this recent New America profile. One thing to bear in mind with Microsoft stock is earnings are due on April 29. Stocks are prone to big swings around earnings.

Source: IBD

[winston]

not vested

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT)

Microsoft hit a valuation of $1 trillion just a year ago, joining Apple, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL), and Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) in that select group of American companies.

The difference is you can still buy shares of Microsoft for $172, while Alphabet and Amazon go for over $1,000 and $2,000 per share, respectively.

Microsoft has also proven one of the more resilient stocks amid the coronavirus crash. It’s actually up 7% since the start of 2020.

A large part of this is revenue from its Azure cloud service. Azure has continually beat revenue expectations in the last couple years. For Q4 2019, Azure revenue was up 64%.

The cloud platform has been applied to business, personal, gaming, and government purposes. Microsoft is continuing to plant servers across the globe, and that’s only going to send the stock sky-high.

Analysts give it a $210 target for the year, which is growth of more than 20%. This is one of the steadiest-growing stocks around.

Source: Money Morning

[behappyalways]

Microsoft tops $10 billion in earnings, beating even pre-coronavirus expectations
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/micro ... ck_seemore

[behappyalways]

Microsoft to close physical stores, take $450 million hit
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/microsof ... 55174.html