Deferred Revenues ( basically multi-year subscription sales to businesses ) will be the key, says Rick Sherlund of Goldman Sachs. The number was -780 million last quarter, and looking for about -300 million this quarter. Any number around -100 million would be very positive he says and would probably result in the stock trading up thru $30.00 $55 billion in cash, but not looking for a dividend meeting until July.
For the first time in 2 years! More people buying the software upfront, rather than on a subscription basis.
"But investors appeared to be focusing more on a continuing decline in the company's deferred revenue line, which plummeted an unexpectedly large $768 million in the first quarter. Microsoft's balance of unearned, or deferred, revenue fell sequentially by $395 million in the second quarter. That's higher than some analysts were expecting though not necessarily off of the company's vague guidance projecting a decline of a few hundred million dollars" comments from the street.com
"We had expected PC unit shipments in high single digits," but now we expect double digit growth," Microsoft Chief Financial Officer John Connors told Reuters. This report is better than people think!
shorted qqq's at 25 10 and 92 after the announcement.....looking to add on a break of 37 70.......best to all. grimer11
In fact, I think the Linux challenge is what underlies the real weakness of the stock. I keep thinking back to the interview I did on "Kudlow & Cramer" with Red Hat CFO Kevin Thompson. That guy was like a Vietcong guerrilla dedicated to the overthrow of the imperialist U.S. overlords. He was almost cartoonish in his desire to destroy Microsoft. I don't own the stock. And it's hard to worry about a company with more money in the bank than any entity in the world. But to me the deferred revenue is the sideshow; the Linux challenge is the real deal. It is why I simply am not tempted to buy the stock here