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Benzinga
Benzinga
Business
Dylan Berman

Microsoft Stock Is Trading Higher Thursday: What's Going On?

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Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares are trading higher Thursday after the company reported better-than-expected fourth quarter financial results on Wednesday after the market closed.

What To Know: The company reported earnings per share of $3.65, beating the consensus estimate of $3.37. In addition, Microsoft reported sales of $76.44 billion, beating the consensus estimate of $73.79 billion.

Microsoft broke down revenue further, reporting cloud revenue rose 27% to $46.7 billion, while Azure surpassed $75 billion in annual revenue on 34% growth. Intelligent Cloud revenue climbed 26% to $29.9 billion, led by a 39% increase in Azure and other cloud services.

The company reported net income of $27.2 billion, up 24% year-over-year, and operating income of $34.3 billion, up 23%.

Q1 Outlook: The company sees sales from $74.70 billion to $75.80 billion, versus the consensus estimate of $74.06 billion.

Analyst Changes: Following the earnings report, multiple analysts issued price target adjustments.

  • Piper Sandler analyst Brent Bracelin maintained an Overweight rating on Microsoft and raised the price target from $600 to $650.
  • Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives maintained an Outperform rating on Microsoft and raised the price target from $600 to $625.
  • Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Thomas Blakey maintained an Overweight rating on Microsoft and raised the price target from $581 to $639.
  • Oppenheimer analyst Brian Schwartz maintained an Outperform rating on Microsoft and raised the price target from $600 to $630.
  • Keybanc analyst Jackson Ader upgraded Microsoft from a Sector Weight rating to an Overweight rating and announced a $630 price target.

See Also: Carvana Stock Climbs To New Highs After Q2 Earnings: What’s Driving The Action?

MSFT Price Action: At the time of writing, Microsoft stock is trading 4.5% higher at $536.64, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

Image via Shutterstock

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