Microsoft MSFT shares rallied 5.7% in the last trading session to close at $372.97. This move can be attributable to notable volume with a higher number of shares being traded than in a typical session. This compares to the stock's 17.4% loss over the past four weeks.
The optimism surrounding the stock can be attributed to strong demand for Microsoft’s AI and cloud offerings, led by Azure and Microsoft 365 Copilot. Further, Microsoft continues to expand AI infrastructure, increase data center capacity, and benefit from strong demand for AI services, positioning the company for sustained long-term growth.
This software maker is expected to post quarterly earnings of $4.21 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +15.3%. Revenues are expected to be $87.46 billion, up 14.4% from the year-ago quarter.
Earnings and revenue growth expectations certainly give a good sense of the potential strength in a stock, but empirical research shows that trends in earnings estimate revisions are strongly correlated with near-term stock price movements.
For Microsoft, the consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. And a stock's price usually doesn't keep moving higher in the absence of any trend in earnings estimate revisions. So, make sure to keep an eye on MSFT going forward to see if this recent jump can turn into more strength down the road.
The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>>
Microsoft is a member of the Zacks Computer - Software industry. One other stock in the same industry, Pegasystems PEGA, finished the last trading session 7.2% higher at $30.78. PEGA has returned -15.1% over the past month.
Pegasystems' consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming report has remained unchanged over the past month at $0.43. Compared to the company's year-ago EPS, this represents a change of +53.6%. Pegasystems currently boasts a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
