Microsoft’s stock price dipped Wednesday after the software giant’s revenue forecast for the coming quarter fell short of Wall Street’s expectations.
The Window’s maker’s shares tumbled about 3 percent to $206.72 in premarket trading as of 9:07 a.m. even though its net profits jumped 30 percent to $13.9 billion, or $1.82 per share, in the July-to-September quarter.
While the quarterly results Microsoft released Tuesday beat analysts’ estimates for profits of $1.54 per share, investors were not thrilled about its outlook for the final three months of the year, which will see the launch of its next Xbox video game console.
Microsoft expects to rake in $39.5 billion to $40.4 billion in revenues for the October-to-December quarter, chief financial officer Amy Hood said. That range came in below Wall Street’s average estimate for guidance of $40.5 billion even though it would mark a jump from last year’s holiday-season revenues of $36.9 billion, according to MarketWatch.
The forecast nevertheless pointed to a continued surge in Microsoft’s business as the coronavirus pandemic sparked increased demand for its cloud-computing products.
The Washington State-based tech titan’s revenues climbed 12 percent to $37.2 billion in the most recent quarter, thanks in part to a 48 percent spike in revenues from Azure, its flagship cloud service.
Microsoft Teams, the workplace messaging and collaboration software, has also exploded to more than 115 million daily active users from 75 million in April amid a widespread shift to remote work prompted by the COVID-19 crisis.
“We are innovating across our full modern tech stack to help our customers in every industry improve time to value, increase agility, and reduce costs,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement.
With Post wires
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