Three Tech Giants Strike Big on Earnings

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) also reported its financial results for the third quarter, which showed an annual decline in revenue to $20.38 billion from $23.20 billion. The revenue came in higher than expected and Microsoft’s adjusted earnings per share of $0.67 also increased by 15% from last year and were above the estimates of $0.59. The decline in revenue came on the back of the weaker PC market, with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s More Personal Computing revenue falling by 17%, however the company is successfully transitioning towards cloud services and software. Its Productivity and Business Processes revenue inched down by 3% year-over-year, but is up in constant currency terms, while its Intelligent Cloud revenue advanced by 8% from the same quarter a year ago. A total of 107 funds from our database held long stakes in Microsoft at the end of June, representing around 5% of the company’s outstanding stock. Among them, Jeff Ubben‘s ValueAct was the largest shareholder, with a position of 75.27 million shares.

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) will be another winner today alongside Microsoft and Alphabet. The company delivered 23% sales growth during the third quarter to $25.4 billion and above estimates of $24.91 billion. Strong sales in North America and the growth of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s cloud computing segment helped the company achieve its second-straight profitable quarter. The e-commerce company posted EPS of $0.17 for the third quarter, which represents a huge surprise compared to the loss of $0.13 per share expected by analysts. The stock will most likely keep the momentum reached in extended trading, which means that it can reach a 100% growth in year-to-date terms. Among the funds from our database, one of the top shareholders of Amazon.com is Fisher Asset Management, which owns 2.50 million shares of the company as of the end of September, with the stake representing its second-largest holding.

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