Microsoft reported a rise in quarterly profit on Thursday, boosted by strong sales of its Windows operating system, and the company raised its full-year profit outlook, sending its shares up 4 percent,” Daisuke Wakabayashi reports for Reuters.
“Net profit in its fiscal second quarter rose to $4.7 billion, or 50 cents per diluted share, from $2.6 billion, or 26 cents per diluted share, in the year-ago period. Revenue rose 30 percent to $16.37 billion,” Wakabayashi reports. “Analysts, on average, had forecast Microsoft to earn 46 cents per share on revenue of $15.94 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.”
“The second-quarter revenue and profit growth rates are exaggerated by results in the year-ago period when Microsoft deferred more than $1 billion in net income due to delays in releasing Windows Vista and Office 2007, which hit stores in early 2007,” Wakabayashi reports.
“For the fiscal year ending in June, Microsoft lifted its outlook. It now expects earnings per share to range between $1.85 and $1.88 per share, up from its previous estimate of $1.78 to $1.81,” Wakabayashi reports.
“Microsoft’s results and raised forecasts come on the heels of disappointing outlooks from technology bellwethers Intel Corp. and Apple Inc., which sent shivers through an already jittery stock market,” Wakabayashi reports.
“For the current quarter, Microsoft said earnings per share would range between 43 cents and 45 cents per share on revenue ranging from $14.3 billion to $14.6 billion,” Wakabayashi reports. “Wall Street analysts, on average, are predicting Microsoft will earn 44 cents a share in the March quarter on revenue of $14.4 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.”
“In after-hours trade, Microsoft shares rose to $34.60, after closing up 4 percent in regular Nasdaq trade at $33.25, ” Wakabayashi reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: 5:30pm EST: In After-hours trading, Apple (AAPL) is up $1.98, or 1.46% to $137.58.
I was just thinking, M$ is doing good because PC makers don’t have any viable alternative, except maybe some version of Linux.
I know we have been through this before, but what if
Apple decided to sell OS X to PC makers this year?
I bet most of them including Dell and Sony would make a switch.
Outlook for M$ wouldn’t be so good, I don’t think they could survive something like this.
Apple has a lot of cash right now and could risk it, they have other cash cows besides Mac line, this is not like the 90’s situation so it could work.
Maybe Apple could buy Sony and sell them Apples…Sonys with OS X pre-installed
Re RC…. “So you conveniently pick a time window that shows the best performance for Apple and the worst for MS to make your lame argument??”
You mean… a convenient time window like, say, the last FIVE YEARS as opposed to a couple months?
Sounds like you’re the one wanting to avoid seeing the bigger picture by looking at a “convenient” short-term window
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You realize of course, than no short-term window will stop Apple’s runaway success, nor stop Microsoft’s painful cartwheel down the stairs (long and profitable though it may be), nor stop trolls from being instantly recognizable for their green skin and living in their mama’s basements under bridges.
Wait… I forgot that even this LAST quarter looked good for Apple–their best ever in fact. So… what’s your “convenient” window… a couple days long?
I’ll stick with the years-long facts. Sorry if that history doesn’t look so good for your beloved Microsoft. It points to the future whether you like it or not.
@Reality’s Nighmare
Keep talking and living in denial while AAPL stock continues to drop each day and MS continues to go up. History, regardless of which time window you choose, LAST quarter, one month, one decade or whatever is of little validity. LAST quarter’s numbers for AAPL are history. Markets don’t give a damn about LAST quarter, rather they look out 6-9 months and they see big storm clouds on the horizon for Apple. The iPhone has not taken root overseas which is really where most of the future growth will be. Here in the US AT&T;activated fewer iPhones in the 4th qtr thanthey did in the 3rd qtr indicating saturation is occuring with that product here or else users are waiting for 3G and GPS on the next version, by the way something Jobs had nothing to say about at the keynote. Lack of 3G, GPS and a good 4-5 mp camera may fly here in the low-tech US cell phone market but not in Europe or Asia. Nokia and Sony-Ericsson, already well entrenched there, are going to trounce Apple in those overseas markets and already have a technology advantage over Apple. Open SDK means squat in the US when Apple is tied to AT&T;for 2 more years, an eternity in the technology biz. Could that be why so many iPhones are not being activated by AT&T;, people wnat choices? As other phone providers like Verizon unbundle the handsets this year from the service Apple will be stuck with AT&T;for years. I’m not even going to go into the Google Adroid scenarios which will also challenge Apple seriously in 2008.
Apple is in serious need of some good news like a new iPhone announcement or similar. A new, lame, feature-lacking laptop and updating AppleTV is not enough for the over-hyped investors. When good news does finally happen expect a huge runup in the shares, exactly why I bought back in to the stock recently.
Anybody see any figures for xp sales in the fourth quarter? Would be interesting