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Wednesday Technology Earnings Live: Will Microsoft (MSFT), Meta Platforms (META), and Tesla (TSLA) Soar Higher?

Jan 29 Tech Earnings
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Live Updates

Microsoft Sinks on Guidance

Microsoft’s guidance for next quarter has led to a rapid sell-off.

Shares are down 4.7% with shares of Amazon immediately falling 1.8% after Microsoft’s guidance was announced. Its comments reversed gains in NVIDIA shares.

However, Meta customer Broadcom is up 5% after-hours after the company gave far more optimistic projections on AI spend.

Tesla Up 5% - Robotaxi Service Launching in Austin

Tesla shares are up 5% despite missing earnings. The big story investors are keying in on? The company plans to launch its robotaxi service in Austin by the middle of the year.

AI Infrastructure Stocks Jump in After Hours Trading

Both Microsoft and Meta Platforms stuck to AI spending plans tonight – which was expected. However, their commentary was extremely ‘bullish’ and business results around AI continued to stand out.

For example, Meta talked up their push into Agents while Microsoft’s booking around AI soared thanks to commitments from OpenAI.

The conference calls helped push up AI infrastructure stocks that sunk on Monday.

  • NVIDIA: Is up 2.2% after hours
  • Broadcom: Up 2.7% after hours
  • Marvell: Up 3% after hours

Technology Stocks Generally Gaining After Hours

Let’s take a look at where some of the most notable stocks are trading at as of 5:15 pm. ET.

  • Microsoft: Down 2%
  • Tesla: Now up 3% to $400 per share after it initially fell to $374 before rebounding
  • IBM: Up 8.6% to $248 per share
  • Lam Research: Up 5.4%, down slightly from its initial jump
  • ServiceNow: Down 8%, which is an improvement from the company’s initial drop of 11%
  • Meta Platforms: Up 4.8% to $709 per share

Meta Shares Are Now Up 4%

Despite Meta’s first-quarter guidance that came in below Wall Street expectations, the company’s stock is jumping, now up 4% to $700 per share.

We’ll continue updating this live blog as their earnings call progresses.

Digging More Into Microsoft's Numbers

We’re digging more into Microsoft’s earnings numbers.

  • Commercial bookings for the company grew 67% from last year, driven by Azuare commitments from OpenAI. This number may get more attention tomorrow. While Azure sales come in a bit below expectations, the bookings backlog continues to soar. The ‘Commercial remaining performance obligation’ figure the company reports now stands at $298 billion. 
  • For reference, commercial bookings grew 30% last quarter, 17% the quarter before, and 29% in the quarter before that.

The big picture here: it wouldn’t surprise us if Microsoft shares saw some recovery tomorrow as people digest some details in this report beyond the headline figures.

More on META Earnings

A few other notes on Meta’s earnings:

  • As expected, the company has maintained 2025 capital expenditures outlook of $60 billion to $65 billion, which it recently had announced. Commentary from both Zuckerberg and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will likely drive price action on AI infrastructure stocks tomorrow.
  • Total expenses are projected at $114 billion to $119 billion in 2025, which is higher than Wall Street estimates. These growing expenses could crimp the operating leverage Meta has enjoyed this year so we expect questions from Wall Street on the call around spending plans next year.
  • Free cash flow last quarter hit $13.15 billion, which was significantly above Wall Street estimates.
  • Where is AI delivering ROI for Meta? Ad impressions were up 6% from last year but the average price per ad was up 14% year-over-year. The company continues to gain significant efficiency from AI in advertising.

Meta Earnings Are Out

We’ve been waiting on earnings from Meta Platforms (Nasdaq: META), and they’re finally out.

  •  Revenue of $48.39 billion (Wall Street estimates of $47 billion)
  • EPS of $8.02 (Wall Street estimates of $6.78)

Both those numbers are exceptional, but Q1 guidance came in lighter than expected. The company forecast revenue at a midpoint of $40.59 billion, which is below expectations of $41.6 billion.

Will Wall Street punish the guidance or celebrate another quarter of surging profitability? So far the reaction is very muted, with shares up .3% shortly after earnings released.

Meta’s earnings call will be one to watch, with Wall Street sure to press into capital spending plans for the year ahead.

 

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ServiceNow Sinks - Here's The Numbers

ServiceNow has recovered slightly from earlier, its stock is down 9% after-hours after initially dropping 11%.

The headline is that earnings on both the revenue and earnings side disappointed.

EPS of $3.67 met Wall Street expectations, which is typically punished for a stock trading at the levels ServiceNow is. In addition, revenue slightly missed, coming in at $2.957 billion versus expectations slightly above at $2.96 billion.

Those numbers could be forgiven if the company’s guidance was stellar, but that was also slightly below expectations. ServiceNow is forecasting subscription revenue next quarter at a midpoint of $2.9975 billion, which is below what Wall Street expected.

In recent days investors have been looking more for software AI plays after hardware stocks plummeted on Monday, so ServiceNow has a compelling story for Wall Street. We’ll see if the stock rebounds when the company hosts its conference call and is able to provide some longer-term commentary.

Microsoft Takes AI Revenue Up

Microsoft’s earnings release was titled “Microsoft Cloud and AI Strength Drives Second Quarter Results,” so its clear what the company wants to highlight.

After the company’s standard numbers (revenue, operating income, net income, EPS), the first thing Microsoft highlighted was their AI annual run rate, which was upped from $10 billion to $13 billion.

Microsoft noted the growth rate is 175% from the prior year. We noted earlier in this live blog that Azure’s & other cloud services saw growth decelerate from 33% last quarter to 31% this quarter. We expect Wall Street to ask a number of questions about this growth rate on the company’s earnings call.

Early Stock Price Reactions to Earnings

Let’s look at some of the early reactions (as of 4:22 p.m. ET) reactions to tonight’s tech-heavy earnings slate:

  • Microsoft: Down .62% after initially falling more than 3%
  • Tesla: Down 2% to $389 per share. Initially fell to $374 before rebounding
  • IBM: Up 8% to $247 per share
  • Lam Research: Up 6.65%
  • ServiceNow: Down 11% to $1,015 per share

We’re still waiting on Meta’s earnings, but so far earnings tonight have been a mixed bag with Lam Research and IBM leading more notable technology stocks.

Lam Research Earnings Are Out

Lam Research just released its earnings, which beat expectations on the top and bottom lines.

Revenue of $4.38 billion exceeded Wall Street expectations of about $4.3 billion while the company’s EPS of $.92 beat estimates of $.88.

The company has spiked 7% after hours.

Wednesday is one of the busiest days of the earnings season with companies like Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), Meta Platforms (Nasdaq: META), Lam Research (Nasdaq: LRCX), and Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) all reporting after hours. 

Wall Street will be asking questions about each company’s capital spending plans after the Monday market sell-off that was sparked by fears around DeepSeek and the US’ leadership in AI. We’ll be updating a live blog to keep you updated on each company’s performance and noteworthy quotes throughout their conference calls. 

Please note, this article is a live blog that will be continually updated. Please refresh periodically for more updates. 

Microsoft Earnings

Let’s first look at Microsoft’s earnings. Here are the key numbers to watch:

  • Revenue: $69.6 billion (Wall Street estimates of $68.9 billion) 
  • EPS: $3.23 (Wall Street estimates of $3.13)
  • Cloud Revenue: $25.5 billion (estimates of $26 billion)

Microsoft beat on revenue and earnings, but that cloud number will draw most the questions on the company’s conference call. Azure & Other Cloud Services revenue was up 31% from last year which was a deceleration from the prior quarter. 

Microsoft dropped 3% immediately upon the earnings release, we’d expect most questions to be about their cloud revenue. 

Tesla Earnings 

Tesla posts a miss across the board on key figures Wall Street is watching. 

  • Revenue: $25.7 Billion (Wall Street estimates of $27.2 billion) 
  • Adjusted EPS: $.73 (Wall Street estimates of $.75) 
  • Automotive Revenue of $19.8 billion (estimates of $21.5 billion)

Tesla saw an immediate drop of about 3% following the earnings. While the numbers generally came in short, there are some ‘bright spots’ such as Tesla’s energy business which beat estimates and produced 113% growth from the prior year. Operating cash flow was also strong at $4.8 billion, a jump of 10% from the prior year. 

We’re still waiting on earnings from Meta Platforms and will provide updates after their release their financials. 

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