Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) released its earnings numbers for the three months through June 2014 this afternoon after the market closed for the day on Wall Street. The enterprise software company showed earnings of $0.55 per share for the three month period on revenue totaling $23.38 billion. On today’s market shares in the company, which is led by CEO Satya Nadella, trended flat to finish trading at $44.83.
The same three months of 2013 are not directly comparable to today’s earnings given the acquisition of the Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) handset division in the intervening period, but last year’s numbers are of some use. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) earned 66 cents per share in the fourth quarter of last year on revenue totaling $19.9 billion.
Analysts look for Microsoft growth
Given the weight of Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) on the company and the transition it is currently going through, analysts weren’t all that optimistic about Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) earnings for the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2014. Consensus estimates, from a Businessweek study of 21 analysts following the company, projected an announcement of earnings of 61 cents per share on revenue totaling $23 billion.
2014 is expected to be a bit of an unusual year for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). The company’s future hinges on its ability to adapt to a new era in computing, and Satya Nadella has started on that path with the divesting of 18,000 employees, a fact that will likely be material in the company’s next earnings report.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) may be seeing massive growth in revenue, but the company’s compressed margins have been dealing a blow to investors. Despite that compression, analysts are expecting the company to improve its bottom line this year, and many are expecting Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) to be one of the best tech bets on the new era in computing.
Enterprise business building at Microsoft
In the second half of last year Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) stock began to take off, and the company’s shares are still on that trajectory. The firm’s shares have risen by close to 40% in the last twelve months, making it one of the best performers on the S&P 500 in the period. The reason for the hike in valuation, according to the analysts who influence the dynamic, is the company’s resolution to concentrate on enterprise.
Under former CEO Steve Ballmer, many investors were unhappy with the Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) concentration on the less lucrative consumer side of Microsoft business. The forays into that area, which included the Xbox and Surface hardware initiatives, have done little to improve the company’s bottom line.
Investors are happy to hear Nadella speaking about the company’s core enterprise business. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is facing a good deal more competition in that area than it used to, but the company’s future is still linked inexorably to its performance in that segment.
As Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) develops its enterprise offerings further, increasing the efficacy of its cloud infrastructure and making other changes, its enterprise revenue may begin to outgrow those of its competitors. That’s the dream of the company’s shareholders, but it seems quite a way off given the numbers presented by the company this afternoon.
