Microsoft shares rose 5% after earnings beat expectations
What’s happening:-
Shares of Microsoft and Meta Platforms rallied on their quarterly results, released after the closing bell on Wednesday.
What happened:-
Both tech giants reported better-than-expected sales and earnings.
Both Microsoft and Meta also issued strong sales guidance for their current quarter, providing a further boost to their stocks.
How were the results
: Both companies reported double-digit revenue growth for the latest quarters.
Microsoft and Meta earnings boost market rally
Microsoft’s revenues surged 17% year-over-year to $76.44 billion, beating consensus estimates of $73.80 billion. Its earnings of $3.65 per share topped Wall Street expectations of $3.37 per share.
Meta reported revenues of $47.52 billion, up 22% year-over-year and surpassing market estimates of $44.58 billion. Earnings came in at $7.14 per share, beating expectations of $5.79 per share.
Why it matters: Microsoft’s stock made gains, taking the market capitalisation past $4 billion in after-hours trading on Wednesday. With this, the software giant joined Nvidia, which topped the $4 trillion market valuation level for the first time earlier this month.
Microsoft (MSFT.US) shares rose 5% in premarket trading after strong fourth-quarter results.
Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud revenues grew by 26% year-over-year to $29.9 billion, while revenues at the More Personal Computing division rose 9% to $13.5 billion.
Microsoft 365 Commercial cloud revenues rose 18% year-over-year, while Microsoft 365 Consumer cloud revenues gained 20% in the quarter.
“Cloud and AI is the driving force of the business transformation across every industry and sector. We’re innovating across the tech stack to help customers adapt and grow in this new era,” CEO Satya Nadella said.
The company guided to sales of $74.70-$75.80 billion for the current quarter.
Meanwhile, Meta said Family daily active people rose 6% year-over-year to 3.48 billion, while ad impressions gained 11% year-over-year, with the average price per ad rising 9% year-over-year during the recent quarter.
Meta (META.US) stock jumped 12% as second-quarter results beat expectations
“We’ve had a strong quarter both in terms of our business and community. I’m excited to build personal superintelligence for everyone in the world,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.
Meta guided to revenues of $47.5-$50.5 billion for the last quarter.
How shares responded: Microsoft’s shares climbed 8.3% to $555.74 in the extended hours, while Meta’s stock jumped 11.5% to $775.10 following their release of quarterly results.
What to watch:-
Investors await the release of earnings reports from other US tech giants, including Apple and Amazon.com today.