After the closing bell on Thursday, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) is expected to report fiscal second-quarter earnings of 68 cents on revenue of $23.68 billion, according to analysts polled by Reuters. During the same period a year-ago, the software giant recorded a profit of 76 cents a share on revenue of $21.46 billion. Mark Newton, chief technical analyst at Greywolf Execution Partners, weighs in on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) ahead of the software giant's fiscal second-quarter earnings announcement after the closing bell on Thursday. In addition, Newton discusses Wednesday's results from eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) and Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX). Microsoft said in October earnings for the first-quarter rose 17 percent, topping Wall Street estimates, as the company reported strong business sales of its Office and server software despite a decline in revenue in its Windows system. The company said devices and consumer revenue grew 4 percent to $7.46 billion in the first-quarter as Windows OEM revenue declined 7 percent, while Surface revenue grew to $400 million. Meanwhile, commercial revenue rose 10 percent to $11.20 billion after the commercial cloud revenue grew 103 percent and the SQL Server Premium revenue rose more than 30 percent. During the first-quarter, Microsoft said net income rose 17 percent to $5.24 billion, or 62 cents a share, compared with earnings of $4.47 billion, or 53 cents a share, during the same quarter in 2012. Revenue rose 16 percent to $18.53 billion from $16.01 billion in the year-earlier period. Ahead of the earnings announcement, shares of Microsoft on Thursday edged down 0.35 percent to $35.80 in afternoon trading.

• published: 23 Jan 2014
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