Research archive for MSFT

The combined market capitalisation of all the shares listed on the JSE is around $1.2 trillion. Microsoft has a market cap of $3 trillion, operates in over 200 countries, has annual revenues of $211 billion and sits on around $100 billion in cash and cash equivalents.

OpenAI is reportedly in early talks to secure up to $40 billion in new funding, which could double its valuation, from $157 billion to $340 billion, making it the second-most valuable private company behind SpaceX.

Microsoft released results on Wednesday night which looked good. The market, though, found something it didn't like and the share price dropped around 6%. Whatevs, we are not interested in these short term gyrations, unless they are up. Joking but not joking.

Microsoft is about to turn 50 years old. The company was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, when they created a basic operating system for the Altair 8800 microcomputer.

Microsoft had results out on Wednesday last week, and the market was slightly underwhelmed. Despite a solid revenue and profit beat, their forecast for the Azure cloud-hosting business unit in 2025 was a little subdued.

OpenAI just closed a $6.6 billion funding round, giving the AI company a massive $157 billion valuation. Thrive Capital led the raise with a $1.3 billion investment, and Microsoft chipped in $750 million, boosting its total stake in OpenAI after already investing $13 billion. Other big names like Khosla Ventures, Fidelity, and Nvidia participated, making this one of the largest-ever private capital injections.

Those of us that were born in the 1960s, or earlier, will know the name Three Mile Island. A nuclear power station near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on the banks of the Susquehanna River, experienced a reactor meltdown in March 1979. Design faults and operating blunders at Unit 2 resulted in the release of radioactive substances into the air and water.

On Tuesday night, Microsoft released a strong set of results, beating analyst estimates for revenue and profit. Frustratingly, on a day when the Nasdaq closed firmly higher, Microsoft fell 1.1%. Revenue for the quarter came in at $65 billion, up 15% from a year ago, earnings per share rose 10% to $2.95, and the dividend rose 10% too. Next year, Microsoft expects to grow profits by 17%, which is impressive given its already large profit base.

The cloud business is incredibly lucrative. As you probably know by now, we are heavily exposed to the theme through the three biggest players, Amazon (AWS), Microsoft (Azure) and Google (Google Cloud). The below image from App Economy Insights shows us the latest market share figures.

Microsoft's financial success is increasingly tied to its cloud services unit, constituting 55% of total revenue, or $65.5 billion out of $118.5 billion generated between July and December 2023.

Microsoft reported its December quarter numbers that beat on both revenue and profit but issued lighter revenue guidance for 2024. The company's shares are up almost 70% over the past year, and they're 11% higher in 2024 so far.

I wrote about Microsoft's results last week but it is such a diverse behemoth that I thought I would share a few extra highlights from the latest release. Previously, I focused on the future of AI but I can assure you, their existing businesses are still in great shape. Take a look at how many parts there are to this company, in the image below.

The mighty Microsoft released excellent results on Tuesday night. The market liked what it saw, and the stock rose in a very weak market yesterday. Revenues beat guidance by 3.5%, thanks to some great numbers from the powerhouse cloud service, Azure.

Microsoft reported its second-quarter numbers on Tuesday with both revenues and profits ahead of expectations. Revenue growth slowed to 7% for the full year, compared to 18% last year, and was the slowest rate in seven years. To be fair, it's been an exceptional run under CEO Satya Nadella.

The acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft for $69 billion is moving forward after the FTC's injunction was denied a final appeal. The deal will likely close soon if Microsoft can address concerns raised by the UK competition watchdog regarding a potential cloud streaming monopoly.