October 25th, 2007
Microsoft reports impressive fiscal first quarter
Microsoft reported a quarter that harkened back to its glory days.
On Thursday, Microsoft reported first quarter earnings of $4.29 billion, or 45 cents a share, on revenue of $13.76 billion. That sum easily beat Wall Street estimates of 39 cents a share on revenue of $12.57 billion, according to Thomson Financial.
Revenue was up 27 percent from a year ago–Microsoft’s best growth since 1999. Microsoft got a nice bump from Vista, Office and Halo.
As for the outlook, Microsoft also impressed Wall Street. The company projected revenue between $15.6 billion to $16.1 billion and earnings between 44 cents a share and 46 cents a share. Wall Street was expecting earnings of 44 cents a share on revenue of $15.6 billion. For the fiscal year ending June 30, Microsoft projected earnings of $1.78 a share to $1.81 a share on revenue between $58.8 billion to $59.7 billion. Wall Street was projecting earnings of $1.73 on revenue of $57.4 billion.
The guidance includes the recently closed acquisition of aQuantive.
By the numbers:
- Microsoft had cash and short term investments of $21.6 billion;
- The business division (Office) reported operating income of $2.69 billion and revenue of $4.11 billion;
- The client division (Vista) reported operating income of $3.36 billion on revenue of $4.14 billion;
- Microsoft’s server and tools unit had operating income of $962 million on revenue of $2.9 billion;
- The entertainment and devices division turned a profit. Operating income was $165 million on revenue of $1.93 billion. You can chalk that result up to Halo 3;
- However, Microsoft’s online services unit lost $264 million on revenue of $671 million.
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.
Subscribe to Between the Lines via Email alerts or RSS.
