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Microsoft stocks (MSFT) rose sharply on Thursday, after posting more robust earnings than expected in the first quarter and continued growth in its key cloud computing division, which could set the tone for a series of earnings focused on technology in the coming days. in front of.
Microsoft's revenue for the quarter ending in September, its first fiscal quarter, far exceeded Street's forecast for each of its key business areas, including its Intelligent Cloud computing division, where Azure sales increased 76%, resulting in an increase in sales of the division of 24%. at $ 8.6 billion. Microsoft's productivity and operations, which include its Office 365 suite of products, grew 19 percent to $ 9.8 billion, while personal computing products, including Xbox gaming consoles, rose 15% to $ 10.7 billion.
"We have seen strength in each of our segments thanks to strong sales execution by our partners and sales teams," Financial Director Amy Hood told investors at a conference call Wednesday evening. "Customer demand for our hybrid and cloud offerings drove the quarter and we continued to benefit from favorable macroeconomic and IT spending trends"
Microsoft shares rose 3.6% on Thursday in pre-purchase transactions, indicating a $ 105.99 selling price, which would have the effect of extending the stock's growth since the beginning of the year beyond 23% and value the group based in Redmond, Wash. more than 805 billion dollars.
Global earnings for the first quarter reached $ 1.14 per share, the company said, exceeding analysts' expectations, to 96 cents a share, while its turnover rose to 29.08 billion of dollars.
Credit Suisse stated that the results "support our contention that Microsoft will be the primary beneficiary of the migration to hybrid cloud environments and is uniquely positioned against other competitors of exceptional size given its hybrid architectural advantage ".
Microsoft's "Azure" cloud sector has been able to steadily increase its market share and is currently ranked second behind Amazon Inc.'s (AMZN) "AWS" cloud platform in terms of market share.
"We appreciate Azure's strong revenue growth and are confident that our customers' long-term commitments reflect the product improvements we've heard about in the last few months," said Zev Fima, Portfolio Analyst Action Alerts. More than Jim Cramer, who Microsoft. "These commitments should give investors more confidence in future earnings and help boost stocks at a time when datacenter growth is in question – a point of view with which we do not agree."
"Microsoft remains one of the most attractive ways to play in the cloud with its relatively low P / E compared to Amazon and its premier hybrid model," he added.
Amazon Web Services currently holds a 41.5 percent market share in the cloud market, according to a recent Cloud Security Alliance report, down from the more than 60 percent market share it had at the end of 2017 Meanwhile, Microsoft's Azure has increased its share market to 29.4%.
Amazon announces its third quarter results after market close today, with analysts expecting a 31% increase in global business to $ 57.1 billion for a net profit of 3 , $ 11 per share.
Tech peer Alphabet (GOOGL), Google's parent company, will also announce a profit for the three months ending in September after the bell. The group's revenue, largely driven by the increase in dollars, is expected to grow by 27% to 34 billion dollars. net growth of 87% to $ 10.40 per share.
Facebook (FB) and Apple (AAPL), the remaining remaining stocks of the so-called FAANG complex, will publish their quarterly results on October 30 and November 1, respectively.
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