Microsoft Profits Up 12 Percent
Yahoo | at | by Mike
Microsoft Corp. is gearing up for an expensive year to assure its long-term health, company executives said, warning Wall Street to expect weaker financial results than earlier forecast. Though the software maker's profits rose nearly 12 percent for its fiscal third quarter, results reported Thursday missed analysts' expectations by about 2 cents a share. That, combined with the revised guidance for future performance, sent shares in Microsoft tumbling in after-hours trading.
"If I'm doing my math right it looks like a good quarter," said Scott McAdams, president of McAdams Wright Ragen in Seattle. "That's the good news. The bad news is they guided down the fourth quarter a little bit."