Microsoft is winning, shares hit new record
Microsoft shares hit a fresh record on Friday after the software giant booked stronger-than-expected quarterly results. The stock has already gained 22% this year as it helps drives the Nasdaq Composite's 13%+ annual gain.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MSFT | MICROSOFT CORP. | 430.98 | +7.52 | +1.78% |
The Redmond, Washington-based corporation earned an adjusted $1.13 per share, beating consensus estimates by 5 cents a share.
Both profit and revenue in the period ending on June 30 exceeded analysts’ estimates, as did Microsoft’s projection for cloud sales in the current quarter.
Amy Hood, the company’s chief financial officer, pledged during the earnings call that commercial cloud margins would improve overall and for each of the products that make up the area, including Azure, Office 365 and cloud-based customer software.
The most recent quarterly report provided further evidence that Microsoft can increase cloud sales and compete with Amazon’s massive industry cloud lead.
“Microsoft has successfully come from behind to exceed Amazon’s cloud revenue, and that gap is only increasing in Microsoft’s favor,” Mark Sami, vice president of Microsoft and Cloud Solutions at the digital tech consulting firm SPR said.
“This is a result of Microsoft not only owning a majority of enterprise customers’ data centers but also being the only major cloud player that allows these enterprise customers to co-exist in both their on-premises environments and the new cloud offerings through a hybrid solution offering,” he added, predicting that Microsoft’s cloud market share will continue to grow and impress investors.