Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares still receive a sell rating from a team of analysts at Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS), although they have bumped their price target for the stock up slightly to $30 per share from $27 per share. In a report released to investors this week, they updated their PC and tablet shipment forecasts.
Updated Forecasts For Microsoft
For Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s June quarter, they’re expecting total revenue of $21.1 billion and earnings of 75 cents per share. The team’s previous estimates were $21.1 billion in revenue and earnings of 77 cents per share.
For the full fiscal year, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) expects $79 billion in revenue on $2.75 earnings per share. For the company’s next fiscal year, they’re expecting $85.1 billion in revenue and earnings of $2.96 per share.
The analysts updated their numbers for two main reasons. First, they worked in their IT hardware team’s updated PC shipment forecast. It moved to 325 million, which is a 6.8 percent decline year over year. That’s a significant increase in forecast decline as the team’s previous estimates were 337 million shipments, a decline of just 3.8 percent year over year.
The other reason Goldman Sachs updated its numbers for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) was because they made a few adjustments to their model. They believe the company’s June quarter gross margins will normalize sequentially due to revenue deferrals in the March and June quarters. They also updated their quarterly revenue estimates for the 2014 fiscal year because of these adjustments.
Goldman Sachs Maintains Sell Rating
The analysts said their thesis for Microsoft hasn’t changed even though they raised their price target slightly. They believe that the company needs to focus on consumer adoption of its mobile offerings, especially its tablets and smartphones.
In addition, they said the company needs to try to slow down the decline in consumer PC sales. They don’t believe Microsoft’s enterprise-related business will provide enough of a solid foundation.
