Laughing All The Way To The Bank
Vista and Office gains translated to a quarter that surpassed Microsoft's earlier forecast and analysts' expectations—and they augur stronger results this year and next than Wall Street was predicting. Microsoft increased its guidance for the fourth quarter and suggested that results in fiscal 2008 might come in ahead of analyst projections.
The company now expects to report fiscal 2007 sales of $50.9 billion to $51.2 billion, up 15% to 16%. Just three months ago, Microsoft was guiding to a more conservative $50.2 billion to $50.7 billion in sales. The company now expects earnings per share for the fiscal year to land between $1.48 and $1.50, up from its earlier guidance of $1.45 to $1.47. Microsoft also offered up its first guidance for fiscal 2008: The company expects $22 billion to $22.5 billion in operating income on sales of $56.5 billion to $57.5 billion. Earnings per share should come in between $1.68 and $1.72.
