Windows 7 fuels Microsoft’s earnings

Article Excerpt

MICROSOFT CORP. $31 (Nasdaq symbol MSFT; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 8.8 billion; Market cap: $272.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.7; Dividend yield: 1.7%; WSSF Rating: Above Average) has risen 16% since it released its Windows 7 operating system on October 22, 2009. About 10% of the world’s computers now use Windows 7. Strong demand for this new program is the main reason why Microsoft’s earnings jumped 34.6% in its third quarter, to $4.0 billion from $3.0 billion a year earlier. (Microsoft’s third quarter ended March 31, 2010.) Earnings per share rose 36.4%, to $0.45 from $0.33, on fewer shares outstanding. Revenue rose 6.3%, to a record $14.5 billion from $13.7 billion. Microsoft spent 15.2% of its revenue on research in the latest quarter. Microsoft is a buy. buy…