One of the advantages of an online trading platform is that it helps newcomers to learn trading from their home and make the right moves to become expert traders. One of the major tasks of traders is to understand the earnings report, which would give them an idea of the financial performance of the company.      

 

As Microsoft presents its earnings report for the fiscal-third-quarter, it is worth reflecting on the past 12 months and the shifts that have been witnessed in Microsoft’s business. On the whole, it’s been positive for the company’s shareholders. Since last April, Microsoft's stock has been more than 35% which is greater than the overall market. The company’s earnings report on Thursday is the key to understanding whether this outperformance is set to continue.

 

Here are some pointers to watch out for:

 

  • Much of Microsoft’s income comes from its cloud services such as Office 365, Azure and Dynamics CRM. These are services that would also provide long-term opportunities in the future. Investors need to look out for the yearly revenue run rate of the company’s cloud services. This directly represents the revenue that could be generated by Microsoft’s enterprise services should the demand remain constant in a single year. It was over $9.4 billion in the last quarter, a significant leap from the around $1 billion in 2013’s first quarter. Microsoft’s management has already claimed it expects to exceed $20 billion in the 2018 fiscal. So will its ratings this quarter show the required growth to attain that goal in 2018? That needs to be seen.
  • Windows licenses are now constrained, and even though Microsoft has announced that Windows 10 is running on 270 million systems, it is still offering the OS as free upgrades to consumers instead of charging a license fee. This has affected the revenue Windows is contributing to Microsoft. Other services such as the aforementioned cloud services have rushed in to compensate the Windows decline. Ironically, Windows 10 can be credited with that. Thanks to Windows 10, Bing attained profitability for the first time last year. Office 365 subscriptions also rose to 20.6 million in the last quarter. 
  • Watch out for Microsoft's demonstration of how Windows 10 is helping its other services as it reveals its report.  Let's not forget that Microsoft also unveiled the Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection last October, which could really attract enterprise customers and help bring in additional revenue for the company.

 

Through online trading with a great broker dealer and a user-friendly and resourceful trading platform, traders can not only learn the art but also attain the skills to understand financial data and make conclusions based on it. With TradeZero you have experienced hands helping you in your learning quest. Give us a call at 954-944-3885 and get started!

 

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