MSFT - Microsoft Corporation
149.69 +0.21 (0.14%)
After hours: 7:59PM EST
| Previous close | 149.62 |
| Open | 149.40 |
| Bid | 149.62 x 1400 |
| Ask | 149.64 x 2200 |
| Day's range | 148.51 - 149.80 |
| 52-week range | 93.96 - 151.33 |
| Volume | 16,125,077 |
| Avg. volume | 22,813,109 |
| Market cap | 1.14T |
| Beta (3Y monthly) | 1.23 |
| PE ratio (TTM) | 28.20 |
| EPS (TTM) | 5.30 |
| Earnings date | 28 Jan 2020 - 3 Feb 2020 |
| Forward dividend & yield | 2.04 (1.36%) |
| Ex-dividend date | 2019-11-20 |
| 1y target est | 160.16 |
- Bloomberg
Bill Gates Touts Benefits of Open Research in AI
Nov.21 -- Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates discussed protectionism in technological research around topics like artificial intelligence. Gates argued that open systems will inevitably win out over closed ones. He speaks with John Micklethwait at Bloomberg's New Economy Forum in Beijing.
- Yahoo Finance
Why NFL great Joe Theismann is trading risky stocks
Yahoo Finance talks investing with NFL great Joe Theismann.
- Bloomberg
Apple AirPods Shipments Expected to Double to 60 Million in 2019
(Bloomberg) -- Shipments of Apple Inc.’s popular AirPods wireless earphones are expected to double to 60 million units in 2019, according to people familiar with the Cupertino-based company’s production plans. This has been driven in part by “much higher” than expected demand for the pricier AirPods Pro model unveiled in October.The $249 AirPods Pro -- which offer noise cancellation and water resistance -- have surpassed expectations and demand for them is pushing Apple’s assembly partners against capacity and technical constraints, a person familiar with the matter said. Multiple suppliers are competing for the business of manufacturing the Pro earphones, though some are still building up the technical proficiency. There’s currently a wait time of two to three weeks for the AirPods Pro on Apple’s U.S. website.The most advanced form of wireless headphones is called “true wireless,” defined by the absence of a wire not just between the headphones and the music source but also between the two earbuds -- and the AirPods are the category-leading example. Taiwan-based Inventec Corp. and China’s Luxshare Precision Industry Co. and Goertek Inc. manufacture the AirPods for Apple.Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller declined to comment on the product’s shipments.The pickup in AirPods sales this year has been helped by the launch of two new iterations: the Pro model in October and a $199 upgraded version of the original in March. The first AirPods were released in 2016. The runway is also mostly clear for Apple to have a successful holiday season, with Microsoft Corp. delaying its rival true wireless buds until spring and Google also not launching its new model until 2020.At the end of August, Apple was the clear leader in the global true wireless earphones market, according to Counterpoint Research. AirPods shipments have dwarfed every alternative and the Beats Powerbeats Pro, another Apple product, also feature in the top 10 sellers. While Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy Buds have emerged as a recognizable competitor, Apple moreover ranked as the most preferred brand for future purchases of true wireless headphones in the U.S., the researchers said.“Apple also edged rivals because true wireless as a category is the preferred choice over wireless earphones, due to factors like better sound quality, portability, and ease of use,” Counterpoint analyst Pavel Naiya wrote on Sept. 26.Wearables like the AirPods and Apple Watch have become a crucial growth driver for the Cupertino company, which is adapting to plateauing iPhone demand in a mature smartphone market. In the past quarter, Apple’s iPhone sales shrunk to $33.4 billion from the prior year’s $36.8 billion, whereas the Wearables, Home, and Accessories segment -- composed of the Apple Watch, AirPods, Beats, HomePod and Apple TV groups -- generated $6.5 billion in revenue, growing by 54%.Total shipments of the AirPods Pro for the year will be determined by how well and how quickly the assemblers overcome the production challenges they currently face. If the overall AirPods range hits 60 million units in 2019 as is now expected, Apple should retain its 50% share of the true wireless market, which Counterpoint expects to surpass 120 million shipments for the year.\--With assistance from Mark Gurman.To contact the reporter on this story: Debby Wu in Taipei at dwu278@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net, Vlad SavovFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
Microsoft Granted U.S. License to Export Software to Huawei
(Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. got a license to do business with Huawei Technologies Co., a step that lets the software giant continue selling some of its most important products to a Chinese company that was blacklisted by the U.S. government earlier this year.“On Nov. 20, the U.S. Department of Commerce granted Microsoft’s request for a license to export mass-market software to Huawei,” the Redmond, Washington-based company said in a statement on Thursday. “We appreciate the department’s action in response to our request.”It was not immediately clear how “mass-market” is defined in the license and the company declined to elaborate beyond the statement. Microsoft sells Windows and Office software to Huawei.This week, the U.S. Commerce Department started granting licenses to some U.S. companies that supply Huawei, one of the biggest makers of smartphones and computer-network equipment.“We’ve had 290-something requests for specific licenses,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in an interview with Fox Business Network on Tuesday. “We’ve now been starting to send out the 20-day intent-to-deny letters and some approvals.”In May, the U.S. added Huawei to an entity list to block U.S. companies from selling components to China’s largest technology company, which it accuses of threatening America’s national security. Huawei has denied those claims.The entity listing requires U.S. firms to get a government license to sell to blacklisted firms. That has dented revenue at some U.S. companies and sown confusion about what is allowed and what isn’t. Technology industry leaders and their lawyers have pushed for clarity for months.Microsoft President Brad Smith complained in September that the U.S. was treating Huawei unfairly and refusing to explain why Huawei shouldn’t be allowed to purchase U.S. technology, including Microsoft software.A bipartisan group of senators requested that U.S. President Donald Trump suspend the approval of licenses. Doing business with Huawei poses “a serious threat to U.S. telecommunications infrastructure and national security more broadly,” the lawmakers said. They also asked that Congress be given a report outlining the criteria for determining whether or not each license would pose a threat.(Updates with details on Microsoft products in third paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Jenny Leonard in Washington at jleonard67@bloomberg.net;Dina Bass in Seattle at dbass2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.net, Jillian WardFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Reuters
Microsoft granted licence to export 'mass-market' software to Huawei
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump said this week it would allow some suppliers to restart sales to the Chinese telecoms giant, which was placed on a trade blacklist over national security concerns six months ago. The Commerce Department confirmed it had begun issuing licenses for some companies to sell goods to Huawei, expanding the company's supplier base and providing long-awaited clarity to the industry that once sold it billions of dollars worth of goods.
- Reuters
Microsoft granted license to export 'mass-market' software to Huawei
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump said this week it would allow some suppliers to restart sales to the Chinese telecoms giant, which was placed on a trade blacklist over national security concerns six months ago. The Commerce Department confirmed it had begun issuing licenses for some companies to sell goods to Huawei, expanding the company's supplier base and providing long-awaited clarity to the industry that once sold it billions of dollars worth of goods. On Wednesday, a U.S. official said it had received roughly 300 license requests, about half of which had been processed.
- Zacks
3 Dividend-Paying Tech Stocks to Buy Right Now on Growth Opportunities
Despite the U.S.-China trade setback, stocks could still climb in 2019 and beyond, and the tech industry remains a key growth driver. Therefore, we searched for tech companies with our Zacks Stock Screener that also pay a dividend...
- Bloomberg
Microsoft Delays Its AirPods Rival Until After the Key Holiday Season
(Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. delayed the launch of its Surface Earbuds, missing the 2019 holiday shopping season. The software giant is the latest company to stumble in a race to catch up with Apple Inc.’s popular AirPods.The Surface Earbuds will come out in spring 2020, not this year as previously planned. The announcement was made by Panos Panay, the company’s chief product officer, on Twitter.The wireless earbuds were announced earlier this year, and like AirPods, are cord free. The Microsoft version has a circular shape, integrates with a voice assistant and can be used to control Microsoft software like PowerPoint.At $249, the Surface Earbuds are priced the same as Apple’s new AirPods Pro, but the delay means Microsoft will be missing out on a key category this holiday season.Google has also been working to upgrade its wireless earbuds. That product will also be missing this holiday season. The company is aiming for a release in the spring at a price of $179.To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Gurman in San Francisco at mgurman1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net, Alistair Barr, Andrew PollackFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Zacks
HP (HPQ) to Post Q4 Earnings: What's in Store for the Stock?
HP's (HPQ) fourth-quarter fiscal 2019 results are likely to reflect high demand in the commercial PC market. However, weakness in the Printing business might have posed a threat to the stock.
- Zacks
Should WisdomTree U.S. LargeCap Fund (EPS) Be on Your Investing Radar?
Style Box ETF report for EPS
- Bloomberg
Bill Gates Says Open Research Beats Erecting Borders in AI
(Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates spoke out against protectionism in technological research around topics like artificial intelligence, arguing that open systems will inevitably win out over closed ones.In conversation with Bloomberg News editor-in-chief John Micklethwait at the New Economy Forum in Beijing on Thursday, Gates was skeptical about the idea that ongoing U.S.-China trade tensions could ever lead to a bifurcated system of two internets and two mutually exclusive strands of tech research and development. “It just doesn’t work that way,” said the software pioneer.“AI is very hard to put back in the bottle,” Gates said, and “whoever has an open system will get massively ahead” by virtue of being able to integrate more insights from more sources. Citing Microsoft’s AI research in Beijing, Gates pondered the rhetorical question of whether it was producing Chinese AI or American AI. In the case of Microsoft’s U.K. research campus in Cambridge and the findings it produces, he said that “almost every one of those papers is going to have some Chinese names on it, some European names on it and some Americans’ names on it.”China and the U.S. are the two leading AI superpowers that have dominated research, however cooling political relations between them have slowed the international collaboration that underpins innovation. Huawei Technologies Co., Beijing’s tech champion, has been subject to a variety of sanctions from Washington, in part because China’s rapid AI development is perceived as a rising threat.Gates said he was more worried today than five years ago about the rise of nationalist and protectionist political tendencies across the globe, and that he now wonders whether that will prove a cyclical trend or a more permanent change. Still, as far as the U.S. and China were concerned, he said he’s “even more passionate about the value of engagement than ever.”The other key takeaways from the talk:Gates said there’s “no doubt” solar and wind are key parts of a new energy mix needed to battle climate change. “Quite a bit of nuclear” may be required to fill in for fossil fuels as we move to zero carbon.But he doubts a carbon tax would be realistic in the U.S. Republicans have largely sworn off the idea and, by and large, he said, Democrats aren’t pushing it as a key priority, either.The ability of political leaders to convince their electorates of the benefits and value of globalization has “gone down,” said Gates.The New Economy Forum is being organized by Bloomberg Media Group, a division of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.To contact the reporters on this story: Vlad Savov in Tokyo at vsavov5@bloomberg.net;John Micklethwait in New York at micklethwait@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net, Colum Murphy, James MaygerFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
Kissinger Says U.S. and China in ‘Foothills of a Cold War’
(Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said the U.S. and China were in the “foothills of a Cold War,” and warned that the conflict could be worse than World War I if left to run unconstrained.“That makes it, in my view, especially important that a period of relative tension be followed by an explicit effort to understand what the political causes are and a commitment by both sides to try to overcome those,” Kissinger told a session of the New Economy Forum. “It is far from being too late for that, because we are still in the foothills of a cold war.”Kissinger said China and the U.S. were countries of a magnitude exceeding that of the Soviet Union and America, and that the world’s two largest economies, who are locked in a protracted trade war, “are bound to step on each other’s toes all over the world, in the sense of being conscious of the purposes of the other.”Solomon on 1MDB, Kissinger Warns on China-U.S. Ties: Live at NEF“So a discussion of our mutual purposes and an attempt to limit the impact of conflict seems to me essential,” he said. “If conflict is is permitted to run unconstrained the outcome could be even worse than it was in Europe. World War 1 broke out because a relatively minor crisis could not be mastered.”Kissinger, 96, said he hoped trade negotiations would provide an opening to political discussions between the two countries.“Everybody knows that trade negotiations, which I hope will succeed and whose success I support, can only be a small beginning to a political discussion that I hope will take place,” he said.QuickTake: How U.S.-China Tech Rivalry Looks Like Cold War 2.0Kissinger spoke hours after Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan addressed the NEF, saying his country was committed to peace and would follow through on policy changes despite facing challenges at home and abroad.“Between war and peace, the Chinese people firmly choose peace. Humanity cherishes peace,” he said. “We should abandon the zero-sum thinking and cold war mentality.”The U.S. and China are trying to assemble a partial trade agreement amid wider tensions ranging from human rights concerns over pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong and the detention of Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region to strategic competition in the South China Sea. Kissinger said he thought a solution to the unrest in Hong Kong was possible, if not likely, and that he hoped it would be resolved via negotiation.The New Economy Forum is being organized by Bloomberg Media Group, a division of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News. Other guests include Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson.\--With assistance from Shelly Banjo.To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: James Mayger in Beijing at jmayger@bloomberg.net;Peter Martin in Beijing at pmartin138@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Karen Leigh, Daniel Ten KateFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Zacks
Microsoft to Drive Digital Overhaul of Oil & Gas Enterprises
Microsoft (MSFT) teams up with Baker Hughes (BKR) and C3.ai, to enable oil and gas enterprises with digital transformation.
- Zacks
Everything Investors Need to Know About Disney+
Here is everything investors need to know about Disney+ in under 60 seconds...
- Bloomberg
Amazon Throws Spaghetti at the Grocery Wall
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Amazon.com Inc. loves to tinker and test. Sometimes projects that seemed like mindless fiddling — the Kindle e-reader, the Prime shopping club, its Amazon Web Services cloud-computing operation — turned out to be important advances for the company, its customers and the technology industry.Despite that history, I have to ask: Does Amazon know what it’s doing in groceries?When Amazon agreed to buy the Whole Foods supermarket chain for nearly $14 billion more than two years ago, it was regarded largely as a bold masterstroke. Groceries and other household goods are a magical category of consumer spending, with close to $1 trillion spent in the U.S. each year. The combination of large spending, the frequency of grocery shopping and its relative lack of e-commerce penetration has made groceries a prime (pun intended) target for Amazon, China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and other new economy giants.So far, Amazon’s serious foray into groceries is marked by head-scratching tactics and middling financial and strategic performance. It’s still early in the supermarket era for Amazon, and it’s never wise to count the company out. Still, unlike Amazon’s history of wild experiments that became wild successes, the company doesn’t have the field of grocery innovation entirely to itself. And it remains unclear whether Amazon has a novel or sensible idea to take grocery shopping in a fresh direction. For now, Amazon has a growing grocery sprawl. Customers can buy groceries and household goods from Amazon in a tangle of spots: its eponymous website; Prime Pantry, a separate shopping club for bulky household goods; the 12-year-old Amazon Fresh grocery delivery service that is expanding; Whole Foods and its separate and expanding delivery operation; the Prime Now delivery service for orders in some cities in one or two hours; Amazon’s couple dozen Go convenience stores without cashiers; a different supermarket chain that Amazon is starting from scratch; a couple of drive-in grocery pickup kiosks in the Seattle area; and — if you’re not exhausted yet reading this list— Bloomberg News reported Wednesday that Amazon wants to take the cashier-less Go technology into larger, supermarket-sized stores.There may be a method to Amazon’s grocery madness. For now, it just looks like madness.The company’s most established grocery operation, Fresh, has languished for years. Amazon has made sensible changes at the 500-store Whole Foods chain, but there have been few of the earth-shattering retail innovations that people expected or feared at the time of that acquisition. And Amazon, which has had patchy success with online shopping outside the U.S., has a largely parochial supermarket operation.Investors barely press Amazon to explain its performance and strategy with Whole Foods and its other food initiatives, and Amazon has obliged by not saying much. Amazon’s limited financial disclosures are enough to make me wonder whether groceries sales at U.S. market leader Walmart are growing faster than those at Amazon’s relatively pipsqueak operation.Amazon’s reported third-quarter revenue growth for its physical stores, which include Whole Foods, Go stores and Amazon’s collection of bookstores — declined 1% from a year earlier after adjustments for movements in foreign currencies. This growth figure excludes Whole Foods delivery orders or purchases made for pickup in stores — fast-growing categories of grocery spending.Amazon in previous quarters provided adjusted figures that indicated its physical stores’ revenue growth was closer to 5% to 6% including online and pickup orders. Walmart in the third quarter said its U.S. grocery operation recorded a “mid-single-digit” percentage comparable sales growth — roughly the same range, you’ll notice, as Amazon’s earlier growth figures.The strategic and financial costs for Amazon’s grocery initiatives are enormous. Whole Foods was by far Amazon’s largest acquisition in its history. My Bloomberg News colleagues previously reported that Amazon has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on Go stores, and that may be a lowball figure. In Wednesday’s article, Bloomberg reported that some of the 1,000 or so people working on Go were recently told their cumulative salaries have totaled more than $1 billion since the project started in 2012.A larger, suburban-sized grocery store is what Amazon originally imagined for its cashier-less Go stores before deciding that megamarkets were overly ambitious. The smaller-format Go stores certainly have received much attention — and they are the genuinely novel idea that Amazon hasn’t showed in its other physical store attempts. Still, it’s hard to call the Go stores a success so far, and Amazon has been less ambitious with their rollout than it planned initially.The sophisticated technology behind shopping with as little human interaction as possible is a promising idea, and it could be licensed to non-Amazon supermarkets or other retail stores, as Amazon, Microsoft Corp. and other technology companies are trying. I do wonder whether retailers that compete with Amazon — essentially all retailers these days — will be willing to pay to use technology from a competitor. Those fears, and the response by technology companies and grocers to Amazon’s push into food sales, are among the signs that Amazon may have less time to tinker than it did in the past. It’s the company that everyone else watches closely, to immediately imitate or respond to what it is doing. Amazon has a long leash from investors to figure out tactics that will give the company a crack at an enormous chunk of people’s wallets. The experience of shopping for groceries definitely could use fresh ideas and approaches. I’m just not convinced that Amazon has them.To contact the author of this story: Shira Ovide at sovide@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Niemi at dniemi1@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Shira Ovide is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology. She previously was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Zacks
Forget Dividend Growth Slowdown With These ETFs
In the third quarter, global dividends hit a record, but the annual growth has decelerated sharply, signaling that "a marked slowdown is under way."
- Zacks
Rockwell Automation & Accenture to Offer Digital Solutions
Rockwell Automation's (ROK) latest partnership with Accenture to assist clients in leveraging Industrial Internet of Things and provide customers with a single digital solutions provider.
- Zacks
Amazon Expands Deal With Salesforce, Gains Competitive Edge
AWS, Amazon's (AMZN) robust cloud platform, extends global partnership with Salesforce.com in a bid to further bolster its cloud offerings.
- Zacks
Google Launches Stadia, Bolsters Initiatives in Gaming Space
Alphabet's (GOOGL) Google is likely to intensify competition in the game space with the launch of Stadia.
- Zacks
3 Reasons Momentum Stock Investors Will Love Microsoft (MSFT)
Microsoft (MSFT) stock is looking quite impressive for momentum-oriented investors as it has favorable price performance and is also seeing positive estimate revisions.
- Zacks
Vodafone to Shift Data Processing & Storage to Google Cloud
The deal is likely to facilitate the digital transformation of Vodafone (VOD) and enhance its service capabilities for superior customer experience.
- Zacks
5 Corporate Giants That Popped After Latest Earnings Release
A few corporate behemoths that reported their last earnings results less than five weeks ago, popped after releasing earnings results.
- Yahoo Finance UK
Microsoft fears Brexit will disrupt 'frictionless' data flows and cloud services
Firms have lined up to warn about Brexit's impact on frictionless trade in goods, but Microsoft's UK CEO worries it could also create barriers to flows of data.
