MSFT: Microsoft Earnings to Drop This Week. Here’s What to Look Out For.

Software heavyweight is expected to bring in $64.57 billion from sales, up a solid 14% from last year’s quarter.

• Microsoft stock MSFT is gearing up for its earnings release, flaunting a 15% year-to-date gain. The software company’s first fiscal-quarter update for the three months ending September is on deck for Wednesday, after the closing bell. In the report, a few things will gather traders’ and investors’ attention. Among them, was there huge growth in the Azure cloud computing platform where the use of AI is heavily concentrated.
• But also top of mind for money managers will be whether there was any overall growth in the business. Sales are expected to hit $64.57 billion, up from last quarter’s $64.73 billion and a 14% jump from last year’s $56.52 billion. Earnings per share, or how profitable the company is, are expected to land at $3.10, up from last quarter’s $2.95 and last year’s $2.99. Net income is eyeballed at $23.2 billion against last quarter’s $22.04 billion and last year’s $22.29 billion.
• When Microsoft delivered its previous quarter’s report, it revealed plans to bump its spending on artificial intelligence (it spent $19 billion last quarter) in a bid to scale its operations and meet growing demand for AI services. Its flagship AI tool, Copilot, has been heavily worked on and advertised as a game-changer — the figures will show whether it has gained traction among Microsoft’s user base made up of businesses and retail consumers.