MICROSOFT CORP. $37 - Nasdaq symbol MSFT

MICROSOFT CORP. $37 (Nasdaq symbol MSFT; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 8.3 billion; Market cap: $307.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.7; Dividend yield: 3.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.microsoft.com) gets most of its revenue from Windows, the software that powers over 90% of the world’s computers, and its Office suite of business programs.

More users are upgrading their systems because Microsoft will soon stop supporting Windows XP, which it launched in 2001. At the same time, demand for its server software and cloud computing services is rising. In addition, the company launched new versions of its Xbox game console and Surface tablet before the Christmas shopping season.

These strengths lifted Microsoft’s revenue by 14.3% in its fiscal 2014 second quarter (which ended December 31, 2013), to $24.5 billion from $21.5 billion a year earlier. Earnings gained 2.8%, to $6.6 billion, or $0.78 a share, from $6.4 billion or $0.76.

The company’s balance sheet remains strong: its long-term debt of $20.7 billion is just 7% of its market cap. It also holds cash and investments of $98.6 billion, or $11.87 a share.

That gives Microsoft flexibility to keep developing new products: its research spending rose 8.7% in the latest quarter, to $2.7 billion (or 11.2% of revenue) from $2.5 billion (or 11.8%).

The company’s healthy balance sheet will also help it fund its upcoming $7.2-billion deal to buy Nokia Corp.’s (New York symbol NOK) cellphone and smartphone operations. Microsoft aims to close the deal in early 2014.

Nokia is the only major phone maker that uses Microsoft’s Windows Phone software. Microsoft believes this purchase will help it better market these phones, and encourage software makers to write Windows Phone programs, or apps. Right now, developers prefer to focus on Apple iPhones and Google Android devices, which together control over 90% of the global smartphone market. Without any contribution from Nokia, Microsoft will probably earn $2.66 a share in fiscal 2014. The stock trades at 13.9 times that estimate. The $1.12 dividend yields 3.0%.

Microsoft is a buy.

Copy
Link copied
Email
Print

Pat McKeough

A professional investment analyst for more than 30 years, Pat has developed a stock-selection technique that has proven reliable in both bull and bear markets. His proprietary ValuVesting System™ focuses on stocks that provide exceptional quality at relatively low prices. Many savvy investors and industry leaders consider it the most powerful stock-picking method ever created.

Find 5 Safe Stocks to
Buy & Hold for Long-Term
Growth and Steady Income

No Credit Card Required

SEND ME THIS FREE REPORT

Testimonials

The cornerstones of Pat’s strategy–value, diversification and timelines–make his newsletter, The Successful Investor, highly profitable while minimizing risk. His advice is no-nonsense, down-to-earth and based on solid research. You’ll know what to invest in and what to avoid.

Chuck Chakrapani, PhD
Investors Association of Canada
The older I get the better dividends look. For retirees and would-be retirees who want to sleep at night, I can’t think of a better source of information on reliable growing dividend income than Pat McKeough’s newsletter, Dividend Advisor.

Jonathan Chevreau
Financial Post Columnist
As a manager of more than $500 million in mutual funds, I have access to the best brokerage research available in this country. But I still take time to read Pat McKeough’s premium newsletters

John Sartz
I appreciate the 25 years of above market returns I received by following your advice. at least 95% of my investment decisions were based on TSI recommendations.

Chuck J.
Subscriber since 1996. Inner Circle Member Since 2006
The newsletters I receive in Inner Circle Pro are fantastic! I have been following Pat’s advice for years and everything he has said has been amazing. His commentaries are brilliant, insightful, educational, rational and balanced. My returns are almost double the TSE and I have referred many of my friends who have switched over to your services.

Walter H.
Inner Circle Pro subscriber

Free Reports

5 Best Stocks to Buy This Month

The Successful Investor Approach to AI Investing

7 Winning Strategies for Dividend Investors

The Best Blue Chips for Canadian Investors

The ETF Investor’s Handbook

The Canadian Guide on How to Invest in Stocks Successfully

Power and Profits of Energy Stocks

Juniors to Giants: The Complete Guide to Mining Stocks

How to Find the Best Growth Stocks

7 Pro Secrets to Value Investing

Browse Topics

Blue Chip Stocks

Blue chip stocks are big, well-established, dividend-paying corporations with strong business prospects. These are companies that also have sound management that should be able to make the right moves to keep competing successfully in a changing marketplace.

Dividend Stocks

Dividend stocks make cash payouts that serve as a way for companies to share the wealth they’ve accumulated. These payouts are drawn from earnings and cash flow and paid to the shareholders of the company. Typically, these dividends are paid quarterly, although they may be paid annually or even monthly as well.

Value Stocks

What are value stocks?

One of the sweetest and most profitable pleasures of successful investing is to buy high-quality “value stocks” (or stocks that are reasonably priced, if not cheap, in relation to its sales, earnings or assets), then hold on to them as mainstream investors recognize the value and push up the share price.

Growth Stocks

Growth stocks are companies that are likely to have sales and earnings growth well above market average. Frequently they pay few, if any, dividends. Instead they typically reinvest any extra cash flow to promote further growth. Chosen wisely—according to Pat McKeough’s advice—high-quality growth-oriented stocks can be worthwhile additions to most well-diversified portfolios.

ETFs

What are ETFs?

ETF is an acronym for exchange traded fund.. These exchange traded funds are used to track indexes as closely as possible, since investors cannot actually buy an index outright.

How To Invest

Pat McKeough has been making investing for beginners simple—and profitable—by helping investors make big gains for more than 25 years. His advice to beginning investors is the same as it is for all investors: buy high-quality, mostly dividend paying stocks (or ETFs that hold these stocks) and evenly spread your investments over the five main economic sectors (Resources, Manufacturing, Finance, Utilities and Consumer). Pat also believes investors should avoid stocks in the broker/media limelight and focus on those with hidden or little-noticed assets.

Wealth Management

Wealth management is the practice of putting your savings to work so that it continues to grow over your lifetime and will also benefit your heirs. Wealth management encompasses many different areas of investing like long term investment planning and retirement planning.

AI Investing

Artificial intelligence (AI) is essentially the merging of today’s big computing with big data. This has resulted in breakthroughs in everything from creating machines to recognize faces with more accuracy than a human, to the development of chatbots able to collect, organize and simplify all the Internet has to say on any topic.

Spinoffs

One of the ways a company can try to unlock its own hidden value is by creating a separate company out of a corporate subsidiary. The parent company can either sell stock in the new company to the public, or spin it off—hand the stock out to its own investors.

Penny Stocks

A penny stock in general trades for under five dollars a share, and as the name implies, sometimes for pennies. Most of the time they’re young companies, or start-ups in speculative markets like mining or technology.

Mining Stocks

Mining stocks are investments in companies that produce or explore for minerals. Some of these minerals include uranium, coal, molybdenum (which is used in steelmaking), copper, silver and gold. They are affected by fluctuating commodity prices in addition to their own business and operating risks.

Energy Stocks

What are energy stocks?

Businesses that work in the extraction, refining and delivery of energy sources such as natural gas, oil, uranium and coal, are considered energy stocks.