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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sonki who wrote (26715)	7/19/1999 5:07:00 PM
From: johnd	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

I put in at 98, 99.5, 99. Still can't get any Who is taking the asks? Some wall streeter is ahead of me

To: Sonki who wrote (26715)	7/19/1999 5:08:00 PM
From: taxman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

HeadlinesMicrosoft blows out analysts' views Office 2000 sales pace company's strong sales, profit By Brenon Daly, CBS MarketWatch Last Update: 3:36 PM ET Jul 19, 1999 Also: Software Report REDMOND, Wash. (CBS.MW) -- Strong initial sales of Office 2000 helped Microsoft show a 60 percent gain in fiscal-fourth-quarter profit as the software giant reported results far above analysts' expectations. Microsoft (MSFT: news, msgs) earned $2.2 billion, or 40 cents per share. In the same quarter last year, Microsoft earned $1.4 billion, or 25 cents per share. Analysts expected Microsoft to earn 36 cents per share. Sales rose 39 percent to $5.76 billion. That was substantially above the $5.06 billion projection from Chris Shilakes, an analyst at Merrill Lynch. However, Microsoft warned that its sales growth rate will slow in the current fiscal year "due to slowing PC demand, uncertainty surrounding (the year 2000) and uncertain global economic conditions." Additionally, the company predicted, "we will not see further margin expansion." Such warnings are typical in Microsoft's quarterly earnings reports. Ahead of the earnings release, Microsoft dipped 1 1/16 to 98 3/8 in trading that was nearly twice as heavy as average. Microsoft rolled out Office 2000 for the retail market in June. The product went to manufacturers earlier in the spring The Office product has about 100 million users worldwide, accounting for about 90 percent of the market. IBM's Lotus division and Corel (COSFF: news, msgs) also compete in the market. While Office 2000 fueled growth at the company, Microsoft is also waiting for a release of Windows 2000 later this year. That product, originally known as Windows NT 5.0, is the latest version of the operating system for large computers. The earnings release comes one session after reports indicated Microsoft is considering making its vast Internet holdings a separate company, which could give it an additional strong stock with which to make acquisitions and attract executives. See related story. Microsoft is meeting with Wall Street analysts on Thursday, and some observers have speculated that the company may outline its plan during the conference. Speculation about that -- along with a minor court victory in Connecticut on Friday -- helped make Microsoft the first company with a half-trillion-dollar market capitalization. Meanwhile, Microsoft said Monday it will sell the entertainment part of its online city guide Sidewalk to Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch for a 9 percent stake of the online entertainment guide (TMCS: news, msgs). With warrants, Microsoft (MSFT: news, msgs) could own up to 13 percent of the company and would become the company's second-largest shareholder. See Screamers. Brenon Daly is an online reporter for CBS MarketWatch. © 1997-1999 MarketWatch.com, Inc. regards