Microsoft (MSFT) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know – Yahoo Finance

Microsoft (MSFT) closed the most recent trading day at $256.92, moving +1.75% from the previous trading session. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.73%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.31%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.01%.
Coming into today, shares of the software maker had gained 4.54% in the past month. In that same time, the Computer and Technology sector lost 0.58%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.09%.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Microsoft as it approaches its next earnings report date. The company is expected to report EPS of $2.28, down 8.06% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $52.93 billion, up 2.32% from the year-ago period.
For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $9.54 per share and revenue of $212.38 billion, which would represent changes of +3.58% and +7.12%, respectively, from the prior year.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Microsoft should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.02% lower within the past month. Microsoft currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Looking at its valuation, Microsoft is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 26.46. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 26.65.
Meanwhile, MSFT's PEG ratio is currently 2.45. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. MSFT's industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.14 as of yesterday's close.
The Computer – Software industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 73, putting it in the top 29% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
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