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Microsoft reports healthy quarterly sales

by Scott Bicheno on 24 October 2008, 15:26

Tags: WD (NYSE:WDC), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Seagate (NASDAQ:STX), Ingram Micro (NYSE:IM), Avnet (NYSE:AVT)

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Tech sector strength

While the world's stock markets continue to reel in anticipation of a global recession, the tech sector has offered some contrasting pieces of positive news this earnings season, with Microsoft joining Apple in beating estimates.

Revenue for the quarter ending 30th September was just over $15 billion, a year-on-year increase of nine percent that was just ahead of expectations. This yielded a net income of $4.37 billion - earnings per share (EPS) of 48 cents, which was in line with expectations.

"Our customers are asking how they can save money and do more with less," said Kevin Turner, COO at Microsoft. "Microsoft is uniquely positioned to help our customers save money through supplier consolidation, increased productivity, and a low total cost of ownership through the depth and breadth of our product portfolio and solutions."

Hard drive company Western Digital raked in $2.1 billion, yielding $211 million in net income - EPS of 93 cents. The revenue was in line with expectations but an EPS of 81 cents, implying greater than expected business efficiency as its profits tripled. The major growth seems to have come from shipments of notebook hard drives.

Things didn't go so well for WD rival Seagate, which saw its net income drop to $60 million, down 83 percent from $355 million. Part of the reason for this drop was $71 million worth of charges related to acquisitions and restructuring.