Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Microsoft News & Technicals
On Wednesday before the market opened, Microsoft announced that they will be streamlining their smartphone hardware business, which will affect up to 1,850 positions with the company, most of which are jobs located in Europe. MSFT plans on writing this off as a restructuring charge, which will cost around $950 million including $200 million as severance payments. The company anticipates that most of this will be completed by the end of this year and completely finished by the end of 2017. This could be a good thing for the company as they continue to cut cost and streamline parts of their business. Currently analysts have an average price target of $58.11.
Looking at the chart you will see that shares have broke out after forming a double bottom in the $50 range with shares now trading above their 200-day moving average that is sitting at $51.01. We should see some resistance come in at the $53 level as it is a key pivot point on the daily chart and the 50-day moving average is right there as well. Support will come in at $51 and $50 followed by a big level at $49. Ideally we would like to see shares get back above $53 on some volume and hold that level before pushing higher. The overall market has broken out as well and could help MSFT push higher as well so keep an eye on this stock.
CEO Comments
We are focusing our phone efforts where we have differentiation — with enterprises that value security, manageability and our Continuum capability, and consumers who value the same,” said Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft. “We will continue to innovate across devices and on our cloud services across all mobile platforms.
MSFT Profile
Microsoft Corp. engages in the provision of developing and marketing software and hardware services. Its products include operating systems for computing devices, servers, phones and intelligent devices. It also offers server applications for distributed computing environments, productivity applications, business solution applications, desktop and server management tools, software development tools, video games, and online advertising. It operates through the following segments: Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. The Productivity and Business Processes segment consists of products and cloud services in portfolio of productivity, communication, and information services.
It comprises of office commercial, office consumer, and microsoft dynamics business solutions. The Intelligent Cloud segment offers hybrid server products and cloud services. It comprises of server products and cloud services and enterprise services. The More Personal Computing segment comprises of windows, devices, gaming, and search advertising. The company was founded by William Henry Gates III in 1975 and is headquartered in Redmond, WA.
By Sean V