World's largest software firm reports better than expected sales and profits gains, stock rises.
April 22, 2004: 4:24 PM EDT
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Microsoft reported better than expected earnings and sales in its fiscal third quarter, an indication that corporations are beginning to increase their spending on personal computers and new software.
The Redmond, Wash.-based company reported net income of $1.32 billion, or 12 cents a share, a decrease of 38 percent from last year's earnings of $2.14 billion, or 20 cents a share.
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However, this year's third quarter results include the cost of Microsoft's restricted stock program for employees and legal charges associated with the company's settlement with Sun Microsystems. Backing out those expenses, Microsoft reported earnings of 34 cents a share, well ahead of analysts' estimates of 29 cents a share.
Sales increased 17 percent from a year ago to $9.2 billion. Wall Street had been expecting sales of $8.66 billion, according to First Call.
Shares of Microsoft (MSFT: Research, Estimates) gained 2 percent in after hours trading according to Island ECN after rising 50 cents, or 2 percent, to $25.95 in regular trading on the Nasdaq Thursday.
The stock has been a weak performer for the past two years, missing out on the tech rally due to concerns about slowing growth in its core business of selling the Windows operating system and Office software used on most of the world's computers and servers.
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