Microsoft Corp. is one of the giants in the stock market. The stock has recently passed the analyst’s estimates with flying colors. After reporting the second quarter’s results, its shares surged forward by almost 10%. Investors expect that stocks will rise by an additional 9% during the next few months. For now, it has already amassed a 74% gain over the past year’s value.
The company’s revenue overcame analysts’ expectations by nearly 3.5% at $36.91 billion. Furthermore, Microsoft beat experts’ earnings estimates by more than 14%, raising the price at $1.51 per share. Such growth was mostly due to Microsoft’s cloud computing unit Azure and its social media platform LinkedIn. While the Azure increased by 62%, LinkedIn added 24%.
Traders are very optimistic about this stock. One of the reasons for such good expectations is analysts’ actions. After the second quarters’ results, they have begun raising their earnings estimates for the company.
The estimates for earnings have soared by almost 6%. According to experts, they will grow further by 20% in fiscal 2020 to $5.70 per share. The revenue has also increased roughly by 2%, and it may climb up by almost 13.5% to $142.6 billion in the near future.
While analysts predict the stock to hit more highs soon, they are also boosting their full-year fiscal 2021 and 2022 earnings estimates. As a result, the shares’ price is skyrocketing too. The average target on the stock rose from $165 to $197.
What About the Cloud?
Microsoft’s cloud business unit continues to increase steadily, bringing in hefty growth. Its revenue rose by nearly 27% in the quarter, reaching almost $11.9 billion a year ago. However, more personal computing had the weakest growth, adding only 1.7% to $13.2 billion. Productivity and business processes, on the other hand, surged forward by roughly 17% to $11.8 billion. Experts are positive that Microsoft will continue to skyrocket in 2020.