More COST CUTS lets MS beat artificially low expectations on FALLING SALES

Party like it's 1999, right guys?

If you listen to just the jackasses on CNBC, you would thought MS was actually doing gangbuster sales, since they never explain anything adequately, and Pisani is a douche.

Microsoft Net Beats Analysts' Estimates as Cost Cuts Temper Falling Sales

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a4ddQhjYNKoU

Microsoft Profit Beats Estimates After Cost Cuts (Update2)
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By Dina Bass

Oct. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp., the world’s largest software maker, posted a smaller drop in profit than analysts estimated after slashing costs to make up for falling sales. The stock had its biggest jump in six months on the Nasdaq.

First-quarter net income fell to $3.57 billion, or 40 cents a share, beating the 32-cent average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Revenue, excluding $1.47 billion deferred to a future quarter, was $12.9 billion, Microsoft said today in a statement. The company boosted its cost-reduction target.

Operating costs fell 6.9 percent after Microsoft made its first companywide firings, slashed travel costs and cut the rates it pays vendors to cope with slower spending by business customers. Demand from consumers helped sales of Windows for personal computers and the Xbox to exceed the estimates of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analyst Sarah Friar.

“The numbers are great,” said Jeff Donlon, an analyst at Manning & Napier Advisors Inc., which manages more than $20 billion, including Microsoft shares, in Rochester, New York. “Reducing operating expense by about a further $400 million is indicative of more prudent investment on the part of the company.”

Microsoft rose $2.07, or 7.8 percent, to $28.66 on the Nasdaq Stock Market at 10:13 a.m. New York time, after climbing as much as 10 percent, the biggest intraday jump since April 24. It rose 8.2 percent last quarter, trailing the 15 percent gain by the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index.

Windows 7 Orders

Analysts had projected sales of $12.4 billion for the period ended Sept. 30. A year earlier, net income was $4.37 billion, or 48 cents a share, on sales of $15.1 billion.

Microsoft, which stopped giving earnings forecasts in January, didn’t provide a specific outlook for profit and sales. Microsoft said it will spend as much as $26.5 billion on operating costs in the year ending June 30, down from a previous forecast for as much as $26.9 billion.

“They can’t manage revenue, but they can manage the bottom line,” said Sid Parakh, an analyst at McAdams Wright Ragen in Seattle. “They’ve been pretty good about costs in the quarter. Everybody is more cautious on spending.”

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, deferred more revenue than the $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion it had expected because pre-orders of Windows 7 were higher than projected. The new operating system officially went on sale yesterday.

Microsoft sold more copies of Windows last quarter than in any previous period because of early Windows 7 orders and high demand for the older Windows XP used on cheap laptops called netbooks, General Manager Bill Koefoed said in an interview.

‘More Bullish’

The company is “more bullish” on the PC market than three months ago and expects a recovery in the consumer market to continue, Koefoed said. Corporate demand is sluggish and won’t rebound this quarter as some analysts expect, he said.

“We’re still pretty cautious on the business market,” he said. “Clearly the Street thinks there might be budget flush in December -- we are a little more cautious on that and think we’ll see more of a recovery next calendar year.”

PC sales rose 2.3 percent last quarter, according to IDC, resuming growth a quarter earlier than the Framingham, Massachusetts-based research firm had projected. Microsoft gets less revenue for the consumer and netbook versions of Windows than for business copies.

For the second quarter, analysts project earnings of 51 cents a share on sales of $17.1 billion. For the full year, they predict profit of $1.67 a share on sales of $58.7 billion.

Bing’s Gains

Sales of Windows for personal computers fell 39 percent, including the revenue deferral, to $2.62 billion, compared with Friar’s $2.52 billion estimate.

Windows 7 should fuel growth in coming quarters, with Windows sales rising 12 percent to $16.7 billion in calendar 2010 after a drop of 11 percent this year, according to Goldman’s Friar. Analysts’ average projections for profit this fiscal year and next are too low because some are underestimating the boost from Windows 7, Friar said.

Server-software sales last quarter were little changed at $3.43 billion. Friar had expected a drop to $3.25 billion.

Revenue at entertainment and devices, the division that includes Xbox, was little changed at $1.89 billion. Friar had projected $1.48 billion.

Sales at Microsoft’s online services division, which includes the Bing search engine, dropped 5.8 percent to $490 million as prices for online advertising fell, Koefoed said. Rates “seem to be stabilizing,” he said.

Bing, released in June, has taken more than a percentage point of market share, according to research firm ComScore Inc. Microsoft had 9.4 percent of the U.S. search market in September, compared with 64.9 percent for Google Inc. and 18.8 percent for Yahoo! Inc., according to ComScore.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dina Bass in Seattle at dbass2@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: October 23, 2009 10:18 EDT

 

MS = Morgan Stanley. If you are going to abbreviate, I suggest you be more accurate and just use the symbol, in this case MSFT.

 

You still watch CNBC?

 

it's an honest mistake and your post doesn't help at all...

if you're going to tell him to use 'the symbol', you need to attach a link or something so he understands what you're talking about. he clearly isn't a trader, and i'm not sure he even knows what a stock symbol is...

 

OUCH!

 

My intent was not to offend. It was meant as constructive criticism. If it came accross otherwise, I apologize.

 

You don't have to apologize, I opened up the thread thinking I'd be reading something about about Morgan Stanley.