A big day for MSFT. It is so quiet on this thread. Here goes!
~2B earnings, up 75%
~5B revenues, up 38%
~20B cash.
~$164 in afterhour trading.
Microsoft Profit Soars 75 Percent, Beats Estimates
REDMOND, Wash. (Reuters) - Software giant Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) Tuesday said strong personal computer sales and year 2000-related spending drove quarterly earnings 75 percent higher than in the same period a year earlier, far exceeding even the highest Wall Street estimates.
Microsoft Corp. said it earned $1.98 billion, or 73 cents per diluted share, in its fiscal second quarter, up from $1.13 billion, or 42 cents, a year earlier. Revenues rose 38 percent to $4.94 billion from $3.59 billion.
On average, Wall Street analysts estimated Microsoft would earn 59 cents a share in the second quarter ended Dec. 31, with the most optimistic estimating the company would come in with earnings of 61 cents, according to First Call, an investment research firm.
The company has exceeded analyst expectations by at least a penny a share for at least 27 straight quarters, dating to fiscal 1992, according to First Call.
Despite the extremely strong quarterly results, Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Greg Maffei said in statement the company remained ''guarded'' about growth in 1999 because of the uncertain international economic outlook and an expected reduction in spending on technology not related to solving Year 2000 problems.
Maffei said demand was strong for Microsoft's core products, including the high-end Windows NT family of systems and the Office 97 suite of basic business applications. The company said it had licensed a total of 25 million units of its Windows NT Workstation, including more than 3 million new users in the latest quarter.
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