As Microsoft Corp. gears up to report earnings in the present, it’s becoming ever harder for Wall Street not to get swept up by the future. Microsoft
MSFT,
+0.39%
is viewed as a huge potential artificial-intelligence beneficiary in the eyes of investors, but the company has its share of challenges in the near term. For one, the company’s Azure cloud-computing business has been in a slowdown, while the Windows business is in decline amid a tough market for personal computers.
These days, however, Wall Street is intently focused on the company’s AI opportunities, and Microsoft provided new reasons to salivate last week when it disclosed pricing for its Microsoft 365 Copilot offering that vastly exceeded what analysts were expecting, helping to underscore the company’s positioning in the current AI frenzy. See more: It’s Microsoft’s most consequential earnings in ages — but the future is even brighter In the end, a mix of near-term and longer-term commentary could drive the stock’s post-earnings performance when Microsoft reports fiscal fourth-quarter results after Tuesday’s closing bell. “Our conversations with investors suggest two main figures that they hope to see to continue the stock’s run; no more than a modest [deceleration] in Azure growth with encouraging commentary for FY24, and quantification of AI tailwinds in FY24 and beyond,” Raymond James analyst Andrew Marok wrote recently. “Our checks suggest that the first seems likely, while the scale of the conversation around AI means that MSFT will likely not be able to avoid the latter.” Here’s what to watch for in the upcoming report:What to expect Earnings: Analysts tracked by FactSet are expecting Microsoft to post $2.55 a share in adjusted earnings, up from $2.23 a share in the year-prior quarter. On Estimize, a platform that crowdsources projections fr …
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