The $2 trillion club: Microsoft may soon join Apple and Saudi Aramco among companies valued at more than $2 trillion. The Redmond, Wash. tech giant reports earnings for the March quarter Tuesday afternoon. Its market capitalization is currently $1.97 trillion; shares have risen 20% this year.
What to expect: Analysts estimate quarterly revenue of $41 billion, up from $35 billion a year ago, and earnings per share of $1.78, up from $1.40. Dan Ives, an analyst with Wedbush Securities, expects Microsoft to beat those numbers as more enterprise workloads move to the cloud, thanks in part to the pandemic-driven acceleration of Azure adoption.
“We believe Azure’s cloud momentum is still in its early days of playing out within the company’s massive installed base and the Office 365 transition for both consumer/enterprise is providing growth tailwinds over the next few years.” Ives wrote in a report.
Another busy quarter: Microsoft landed a $21.8 billion deal with the U.S. Army to make HoloLens-type mixed reality headsets for soldiers; announced plans to reopen its HQ campus; added various features to its Teams collaboration software; completed its $7.5 billion acquisition of ZeniMax Media; and reportedly pursued acquisitions of Pinterest and Discord. Earlier this month the company announced its $19.7 billion acquisition of Nuance Communications.
Go deeper: Earlier this year we hosted Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley, who writes the All About Microsoft blog for ZDNet, on a GeekWire Podcast episode to discuss the state of Microsoft and its future. Foley pointed to security and artificial intelligence as two key sectors for the company. She also sees Teams as another big area of opportunity. Listen to the full episode here.
