{"id":259139,"date":"2018-07-18T07:26:05","date_gmt":"2018-07-18T05:26:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=259139"},"modified":"2018-07-18T07:26:05","modified_gmt":"2018-07-18T05:26:05","slug":"microsoft-shares-rise-to-a-record-high-before-earnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/259139\/microsoft-shares-rise-to-a-record-high-before-earnings\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft shares rise to a record high before earnings"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Microsoft Corp is trading at a record high as it prepares to release its latest quarterly results.<\/p>\n

And Wall Street keeps sounding a bullish call for the world\u2019s largest software maker.<\/p>\n

The company now has 31 buy ratings, up from 26 at the start of this year and the most since late 2010.<\/p>\n

While analysts\u2019 earnings-per-share estimates are little changed since May, their average price target for the stock has climbed.<\/p>\n

They predict the shares will increase 7.5% over the next 12 months, compared with a 5.5% average gain seen among the 36 stocks in the S&P Supercomposite Software Industry Index.<\/p>\n

Microsoft, once known for its dominance in desktop computer operating systems, has climbed more than 20% this year as investors grow increasingly confident in its push toward cloud computing.<\/p>\n

While the company has made headway there, it faces tough competition from deep-pocketed rivals including Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc.\u2019s Google.<\/p>\n

Just this week, Raymond James Financial Inc analyst Michael Turits, who has a strong buy recommendation on Microsoft\u2019s shares, increased his target price by 13% to $124.<\/p>\n

He said in a research note that the company\u2019s success in pushing its products through partners and positioning itself as a cloud leader present upsides for long-term growth forecasts and pointed out that PC shipments are up for the first time in six years.<\/p>\n

Analysts at Bank of America and Piper Jaffray each also raised their price targets as the company is set to report its fiscal fourth-quarter results after the close of trading Thursday. The average earnings-per-share estimate is $1.08.<\/p>\n

Options trading indicates a 3.9% move in the shares after the earnings, which is slightly below the average of 4.2%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.<\/p>\n

And options investors seem to agree with sell-side analysts who see further strength in Microsoft.<\/p>\n

Blocks of 15,000 of the Aug. 3 $105 and $109 calls appear to have been bought on Tuesday, while $96 and $98 strike puts were simultaneously sold.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Read: Microsoft launches smaller, cheaper Surface Go Tablet<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Microsoft Corp is trading at a record high as it prepares to release its latest quarterly results. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":65534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26,169],"class_list":["post-259139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-headline","tag-microsoft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259139"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":259145,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259139\/revisions\/259145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}