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Microsoft Earnings Preview: Cloud Dreams

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Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s earnings are due after the market closes on Thursday. The earnings report, which Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) records as its first quarter of 2014, is expected to show the company’s progress in enterprise services as it tries to reorganize itself for the tech market of the twenty-first century.

Microsoft Earnings Preview: Cloud Dreams

In the run-up to the release of the earnings report, analysts following Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) were looking for earnings per share of 54 cents on revenue totaling $17.8 billion. In the same three months of FY2013 the Redmond, Washington-based company managed to earn 53 cents per share on revenue of $16 billion.

Microsoft cloud offer

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) needs to demonstrate to the market that it can continue to dominate enterprise software. That business is what made Microsoft a global power, but it could easily lose ground if it doesn’t change tack soon. The company is looking to leverage the cloud and its own brand devices in order to keep up in enterprise.

There are varying interpretations of the effectiveness of the company’s strategy. On one hand the firm is alienating the hardware manufacturers it has built up relationships with for years, on the other hand Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) needs to do something drastic if it wants to stay ahead in enterprise.

Cloud services are the most important part of the Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) shift right now. If the firm can get big companies to use its cloud software over those offered by competitors, it will lock companies into its ecosystem. That worked with Windows for more than 30 years. Now Microsoft must try again.

Microsoft cloud performance

In a report issued last Friday, Raymond James analyst Michael Turits kept his Market Perform rating on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), but lowered his estimates. The analyst reckons that the shift to Microsoft cloud services and devices was slower than anticipated in the third quarter.

Turits says that international expectations are volatile because of the poor performance International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) showed in its most recent earnings report. The analyst is positive on the company’s enterprise offerings, but is not sure about the company’s move to first-party devices.

Enterprise is home to Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). The company needs a strong global economy in order to shift the world’s business to its services and devices. With Europe slow and Asia teetering, it’s unclear how long the shift is going to take.

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