Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) is set to report earnings after the close of trading Thursday. The software giant has already tempered some PC sales expectations at the Consumer Electronics Show, which was basically taken as a warning of the PC segment sales. That should have been known after the endless warnings we have seen from hardware makers even if chip guidance in the last week has been better than expected.
Shares are also at the highest pre-earnings handle that they have been in a year and at $28.23, the 52-week range is $23.65 to $29.46. Is Microsoft poised to move higher toward the $30 or is it doomed to head whimpering back down to $25 or $26?
Thomson Reuters has estimates of $0.76 EPS and $20.93 billion in sales, both of which have down slightly. For the coming quarter, estimates are $0.61 EPS and $17.53 billion in sales. For fiscal June-2012, the current estimates are $2.72 EPS and almost $74.5 billion in sales.
The strong US dollar may play some part today since it retails so much business. The consensus price target (mean target) from Thomson Reuters is $31.14 and the median target is about $32.00. Those $30+ prices have just not been since 2010.
If the news is bad or if the reaction is bad, there has been a substantial move higher here. Shares closed out 2011 close to $26.00 and the 50-day moving average is $26.21 and the 200-day moving average is $25.65.
If you will notice, we did not even bring up the Windows smartphones. If the public starts to care we will too.
JON C. OGG
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