MSFT - Microsoft Corporation
133.41 +0.02 (0.01%)
After hours: 7:51PM EDT
| Previous Close | 137.78 |
| Open | 137.19 |
| Bid | 133.40 x 2200 |
| Ask | 133.60 x 1000 |
| Day's Range | 132.80 - 138.35 |
| 52 Week Range | 93.96 - 141.68 |
| Volume | 32,523,998 |
| Avg. Volume | 24,390,871 |
| Market Cap | 1.018T |
| Beta (3Y Monthly) | 0.97 |
| PE Ratio (TTM) | 26.36 |
| EPS (TTM) | 5.06 |
| Earnings Date | Oct 22, 2019 - Oct 28, 2019 |
| Forward Dividend & Yield | 1.84 (1.33%) |
| Ex-Dividend Date | 2019-08-14 |
| 1y Target Est | 154.41 |
- Kiplinger
12 Tech Stocks That Wall Street Loves the Most
Markets have been so volatile this summer on U.S.-China trade tensions that investors might not have noticed: Tech stocks are absolutely red-hot in 2019.Indeed, the technology sector of Standard & Poor's 500-stock index is leading the broader market by a mile this year, with a year-to-date gain of 29% through Aug. 21. By comparison, the S&P; 500 is up about 17%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index has risen 21%. (The second-best performing sector is real estate, up 25%.)Stellar gains are always welcome, but they do pose a challenge for investors. After such a big run-up, is there anything left worth buying at current levels?Analyst sure think so. Between momentum and the sector's outsize growth prospects, plenty of tech stocks have nowhere near topped out, they say.To see which picks analysts like best at this point, we screened the Nasdaq Composite for the top-rated small, midsize and large tech stocks. S&P; Global Market Intelligence surveys analysts' ratings on stocks and scores them on a five-point scale, where 1.0 equals Strong Buy and 5.0 means Strong Sell. Any score of 2.0 or lower means that analysts, on average, rate the stock a Buy. The closer the score gets to 1.0, the better.Here are the 12 tech stocks the analysts love right now. This group is broken down into the four best-rated stock picks in the small-, mid- and large-cap spaces. SEE ALSO: All 30 Dow Stocks Ranked: The Analysts Weigh In
- Insider Monkey
Lone Pine Capital 2019 Q2 Investor Letter
Lone Pine Capital's flagship hedge fund outperformed the S&P 500 Index by nearly 8 percentage points per year since its inception in 1998. But that's mostly because of its tremendous success in the earlier years of the fund. Nowadays Lone Pine's returns go hand in hand with the market. For example, last year Lone Pine's […]
- American City Business Journals
Is your company's technology accessible? Microsoft director weighs in
Code PaLOUsa, a three-day tech conference in Louisville, brought in Gianugo Rabellino, Microsoft’s director of accessibility for the cloud and artificial intelligence (AI), to address many of the issues present because of the lack of accessibility in the tech industry.
- Investor's Business Daily
Dow Jones Dives 550 Points As Microsoft Faces This Key Sell Signal
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, Nasdaq and Russell 2000 showed deep declines in another bearish session for stocks. Microsoft is yielding recent gains.
- Zacks
3 Large-Cap Tech Stocks for Dividend Investors to Buy After Powell Update
As bond yields slip, we searched using the Zacks Stock Screener for large-cap technology firms that also pay a dividend. Here are 3 of the strong tech stocks that came through our screen this morning...
- Investor's Business Daily
Is Shopify Stock A Buy Right Now? Here's What Earnings, SHOP Charts Show
Shopify stock has been a huge winner in 2019. Shopify earnings are booming and the company plans to compete more with Amazon. But is SHOP stock a buy now?
- Investor's Business Daily
Is Salesforce Stock A Buy? Investors Mull Digital Transformation Amid Acquisitions
CRM stock has lagged software group peers as investors digest big acquisitions, such as Tableau. Could digital transformation growth drive a Salesforce stock rally.
- American City Business Journals
Survey: More than 80 percent of employees at Adobe, Intel, Cisco see cost-cutting at work
A vast majority of employees queried at Cisco Systems and several other big Silicon Valley tech employers say they've noticed cost-cutting at work.
- Motley Fool
Is Microsoft the New Safe Haven Stock?
"Tech" and "blue chip" aren't mutually exclusive...
- Motley Fool
Microsoft Management Talks Commercial Cloud and LinkedIn
CFO Amy Hood helps investors better understand these two growth drivers.
- Investor's Business Daily
These Are The Best Tech Stocks To Buy And Watch Now
The best tech stocks to buy and watch aren't hard to find, as long as you know you're fishing in the right pond. That means targeting top stocks showing resilience and holding near highs.
- Simply Wall St.
Should You Like Microsoft Corporation’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) High Return On Capital Employed?
Today we'll look at Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and reflect on its potential as an investment. To be precise...
- Investopedia
10 Most-Loved Stocks in Hedge Funds: Goldman's VIP List
Goldman Sachs’ “Hedge Fund VIP List”—containing the 50 most popular stocks among hedge fund portfolios—has outperformed the broader market for the past 18 years. The Hedge Fund VIP basket has beaten the market by an average 50 bps in every quarter since 2001. The list is a tool that investors can use to “follow the smart money,” wrote Goldman’s analysts in their most recent Hedge Fund Trend Monitor report, which analyzes a group of 835 distinct hedge funds.
- American City Business Journals
California companies drive up competition, cost for Seattle tech talent
Seattle software engineers make an average $116,500 base salary a year, and California companies broadening their Seattle-area bases drive those figures up.
- Motley Fool
Zoom Video Communications: 4 Things to Watch In the Next Earnings Report
Zoom's valuation corresponds to high expectations.
- InvestorPlace
IBM Stock and Jim Whitehurst’s Toughest Test
After some brief excitement following the closing of its Red Hat deal, International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) stock is back in the doldrums.Source: JHVEPhoto / Shutterstock.com Shares were due to open Aug. 22 at about $134.20. They're down 7.5% over the last year, and almost 30% over the last five years. Shareholders are still getting a $1.62 per share dividend that yields 4.84%, but Red Hat blew a huge hole in the balance sheet and IBM stock price. IBM debt on June 30 was over $58 billion. * 10 Marijuana Stocks That Could See 100% Gains, If Not More IBM needs a new story to tell. Red Hat, and the "open hybrid cloud," is that story. IBM has created Open Shift "Cloud Packs" for all its hardware, with hopes of making all computers into clouds. This includes IBM Z-Series mainframes.InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Whitehurst for IBM CEO?What analysts say they want from IBM stock is Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst in current CEO Virginia Rometty's chair. They want Red Hat running IBM.That wasn't the promise when this deal was put together. The promise was that Red Hat would get autonomy from IBM, not that IBM would lose its autonomy to Red Hat. But Whitehurst's concept of an Open Organization has excited analysts who don't even know what it is.If IBM became an Open Organization, these analysts think, it would replace the top-down structure IBM has used for a century with an organic system in which employees and customers are part of the product design process. Instead of selling gear or even solutions, IBM would become a corporate change agent.But IBM has spent decades getting to this low point, dumping older workers and paying those who remain less than competitors.Rometty's IBM is a hollowed-out shell, analysts think, dedicated solely to its dividend and hierarchies. Can Whitehurst really teach it to dance? Everybody Gets a CloudThe 2010s have become the "cloud decade" with $4.5 trillion of market cap locked inside just five companies with scaled networks of cloud data centers.Whitehurst's vision is that every company and organization gets its own cloud, using the clouds of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) seamlessly, and only when needed.This is now IBM's vision. So, the analysts ask, why isn't Whitehurst running IBM?It's because IBM also has a host of other software and hardware platforms, including older, proprietary Unix operating systems, and the Z-Series software of its mainframes. They are on what senior Vice President for Cloud Arvind Krishna calls a "multi-year journey" toward compatibility.In short, it will take years for IBM stock to become what Whitehurst wants it to sell.IBM also has other irons in the fire besides cloud. The company has been spending big on artificial intelligence, on machine learning, and on blockchain. The Bottom Line on IBM StockInternational Business Machines has been run like an old-fashioned industrial organization for decades. Even if Whitehurst became CEO tomorrow, it would take him years to transform the company.IBM shareholders are income investors focused on the dividend, which costs IBM nearly $1.5 billion to service each quarter. Then there's the interest on that debt which, even at 5% would cost nearly $3 billion a year to service. So far, IBM's only financial response to Red Hat has been to halt its stock buybacks, on which it spent $1.2 billion in the last year.IBM earned $8.7 billion in 2018 and could hit that mark again, assuming its third quarter earnings come in as expected. Whether it can be transformed and perform like a real tech company is purely speculative at this point.But if it can, the gains would be huge. Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL), considered stodgy by Silicon Valley standards, is worth $177 billion with sales of $40 billion. IBM is worth $113 billion on sales of $79 billion. IBM is a long-shot speculation with a 5% yield.Dana Blankenhorn is a financial and technology journalist. He is the author of the environmental story, Bridget O'Flynn and the Bear, available at the Amazon Kindle store. Write him at danablankenhorn@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter at @danablankenhorn. As of this writing he owned shares in AMZN and MSFT. More From InvestorPlace * 2 Toxic Pot Stocks You Should Avoid * 10 Marijuana Stocks That Could See 100% Gains, If Not More * 11 Stocks Under $10 to Buy Now * 6 China Stocks to Buy on the Dip The post IBM Stock and Jim Whitehurstas Toughest Test appeared first on InvestorPlace.
- Market Realist
Slack Stock: Will a ‘Buy’ Rating and Soros’s Entry Help?
Today, Slack (WORK) opened 4.5% higher after MKM Partners analyst Rohit Kulkarni gave Slack stock a "buy" rating with a target price of $40.
- Investing.com
GameStop Jumps After Reports ‘Big Short's’ Burry is Long
Investing.com - Shares of GameStop (NYSE:GME) surged in midday trade on Thursday after Barron’s reported that investor Michael Burry is long on the stock.
- InvestorPlace
5 Pros (And 5 Cons) About Apple Stock
When it comes to Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock over the past several years, I've worn many hats -- including both the bear's hat and the bull's hat.Source: View Apart / Shutterstock.com Today, though, I choose not to wear either hat. The risk-reward profile on AAPL stock at current levels seems balanced. That is to say, there are some things to like about Apple stock. There also some things not to like about Apple stock. The things to like largely cancel out with things not to like, and net net, neither the bull nor the bear thesis on AAPL stock looks all that compelling to me at the current moment.To be sure, long term, Apple stock will go higher. But, the near term will probably be choppy, and that choppiness isn't something I'm too interested in buying into.InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading TipsWithout further do, then, let's dive into five pros and five cons about AAPL stock, and see how the risks and rewards balance each other out here. 5 Pros About Apple StockIn no particular order, here are five pros about Apple stock right now.The Secular Growth Narrative Remains (Largely) Robust. Apple remains the Western world's favorite consumer technology company, with its products dominating the smartphone, laptop and smartwatch worlds. Sure, unit growth in those consumer hardware arenas is maxing out. But, Apple is successfully pivoting towards a software-driven growth narrative wherein Apple monetizes its extensive hardware install base with multiple subscription software services. Consumers are buying these services, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future because they are addicted to the iOS ecosystem. In the long run then Apple's revenues and profits should grind higher, as should AAPL stock. * 10 Undervalued Stocks With Breakout Potential China Headwinds Are Easing. China has been a big problem for Apple because: 1) Apple's big growth engine is the China market, 2) China's economic growth is slowing, and 3) elevated trade war tensions between the U.S. and China create increased pricing risk for Apple's products. But, there are signs emerging that China's economy is starting to stabilize, and it appears elevated trade tensions are now cooling. Currency headwinds are also moderating. As such, Apple's China numbers should improve in the back-half of 2019.Big Services Catalysts Are on the Horizon. Apple has a few very big services catalysts on the horizon, including the launch of Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade in the last few months of 2019. If those services gain widespread traction quickly -- and they should, given that they have been hyped up and that Apple is pouring billions of dollars into them -- then investors will grow increasingly bullish on the long-term growth prospects of Apple's services business as we head into the close of 2019. That investor sentiment boost should provide a lift to AAPL stock. Click to EnlargeThe Chart Looks Pretty Good. In late 2018, Apple stock put in a multi-year bottom. Ever since, the stock has been a solid uptrend, forming a healthy multi-quarter support line which the stock has tested and held multiple times. So long as the stock keeps holding this support line, its technicals remain favorable for AAPL stock to stay in an uptrend.The Stock Is Cheap Relative to its Peer Group. AAPL stock presently trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 16.6. That is about as cheap of a forward earnings multiple as you will find in big tech. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) all trade over 20x forward earnings. 5 Cons About Apple StockAlso in no particular order, here are five cons about Apple stock right now.Some Cracks Are Starting to Form in the Secular Growth Narrative, Especially on the iPhone Side. The secular growth narrative of Apple pivoting into software growth as hardware growth has maxed out looks good. But, it's built on this idea that Apple will maintain a huge hardware install base. There are signs that Apple's hardware install base is already shrinking, though, as multiple reports (see here and here) point to the iPhone actually losing global market share over the past several quarters. If this trend accelerates -- admittedly, a big "if" -- then Apple's secular growth narrative could weaken dramatically.China Is a Wildcard With More Turbulence Coming. Apple's China headwinds are easing right now. But, the U.S.-China trade war is cyclical. It goes from "things are progressing," to more tariffs, to "things are progressing, again" -- and cycles through those phases back and forth. As such, there is another shoe waiting to drop here, and when it does drop, AAPL stock could get hit.Holiday iPhone Sales Will Likely Be Weak. Apple's 5G iPhones are set to launch next year. What about this year's new iPhone? It won't incorporate 5G, and that's big because other smartphone manufacturers are launching 5G phones in 2019. Thus, this holiday season, the smartphone landscape will include non-5G iPhones, and 5G "other smartphones." That isn't a favorable backdrop for healthy iPhone sales.Antitrust Risks Loom Large. I mostly subscribe to the idea that the legal fight against big tech amounts to just noise. Nonetheless, noise creates uncertainty, and investors tend to shy away from uncertainty. Thus, antitrust risks are an optical negative for AAPL stock.The Stock is Expensive Relative to its Historical Standard. While AAPL stock may be cheap next to its peers, it's also expensive relative to its historical standard. Specifically, Apple stock's five-year-average forward earnings multiple is about 14X -- roughly 25% below the current forward earnings multiple. The premium is being warranted by this idea that Apple's new software-driven growth narrative is higher margin and has more stability. Thus, if this software-driven growth narrative deteriorates at all, AAPL stock could be due for a sizable valuation pullback. Bottom Line on Apple StockThere are things to like about AAPL stock here -- good growth, easing headwinds, big catalysts, favorable technicals and a relatively cheap valuation. There are also things not to like about AAPL stock here -- cracks forming in the growth profile, wildcard trade and antitrust risks on the horizon, weak iPhone sales expected this holiday season and an above-average valuation.Putting all that together, it becomes fairly clear that the risk-reward profile on Apple stock is balanced. Until it tips one way or the other, I'm content on watching the Apple show from the sidelines.As of this writing, Luke Lango was long FB, GOOG, AMZN and NFLX. More From InvestorPlace * 2 Toxic Pot Stocks You Should Avoid * 10 Marijuana Stocks That Could See 100% Gains, If Not More * 11 Stocks Under $10 to Buy Now * 6 China Stocks to Buy on the Dip The post 5 Pros (And 5 Cons) About Apple Stock appeared first on InvestorPlace.
- Zacks
Salesforce Reports After The Bell: Impact of Tableau Acquistion Anticipated
Salesforces acquisition of Tableau has caused a lot of uncertainty for shareholders and investors. The stock has underperformed the industry and the broader market.
- Benzinga
Microsoft The Latest To Be Criticized For Using Humans To Listen To User Audio
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) is the latest tech company to be criticized for using humans to review audio captured through devices, raising more privacy concerns about in-home tech. Vice reported that contractors working for Microsoft were paid to listen to audio from Xbox users in the hopes of improving the gaming system’s voice command capabilities. The company responded in a statement to Vice that it has stopped listening to voice recordings captured by Xbox systems, though recordings are still made.
- MarketWatch
UnitedHealth, Microsoft share losses contribute to Dow's nearly 75-point drop
DOW UPDATE Shares of UnitedHealth and Microsoft are trading lower Thursday morning, dragging the Dow Jones Industrial Average into negative territory. The Dow (DJIA) was most recently trading 74 points lower (-0.
- Zacks
Can the Minecraft Deal Boost Microsoft's Gaming Segment?
Microsoft's new partnership with Nvidia could give its gaming segment a much-needed push.
- MarketWatch
Here’s how to fix what’s ailing Salesforce
Salesforce, unlike its smaller cloud-computing peers, has underperformed the benchmark S&P 500 Index in the past 12 months, falling 1%. What’s held back Salesforce’s (CRM) stock and what could propel it again? Can Salesforce, especially in the aftermath of large acquisitions, capture more of its addressable market?
