Wall Street Remains Polarized On Microsoft Following Strong Q3

Microsoft Corporation MSFT 0.72% shares are surging 10.2 percent in Friday trading after the company reported Q3 top-line and bottom-line beats. The company reported EPS of $0.67 and revenue of $21.7 billion, ahead of consensus estimates of $0.58 and $20.7, respectively.

Where does Microsoft’s stock go from here? Here’s what four Wall Street firms had to say about the company’s earnings report.

Goldman Sachs

Analyst Heather Bellini conceded that the company had a “solid performance” in Q3, but it did not do enough to convince her to change her Sell rating on the stock. Goldman did, however, raised its price target from $40 to $45.

Jefferies

Analyst John DiFucci also went for the word “solid” to describe Q3, and noted the impressive growth in Azure as a positive for the company. Despite the positive numbers, Jefferies maintains its Underperform rating on Microsoft but raised its price target from $37 to $39.

Pacific Crest

Analyst Brenan Barnicle believes…

Click here to continue reading

Want to learn more about how to profit off the stock market? Or maybe you just want to be able to look sophisticated in front of your coworkers when they ask you what you are reading on your Kindle, and you’d prefer to tell them “Oh, I’m just reading a book about stock market analysis,” rather than the usual “Oh, I’m just looking at pics of my ex-girlfriend on Facebook.” For these reasons and more, check out my book, Beating Wall Street with Common SenseI don’t have a degree in finance; I have a degree in neuroscience. You don’t have to predict what stocks will do if you can predict what traders will do and be one step ahead of them. I made a 400% return in the stock market over five years using only basic principles of psychology and common sense. Beating Wall Street with Common Sense is now available on Amazon, and tradingcommonsense.com is always available on your local internet!