Tech giants’ stock see gains, ride new highs
Google, Microsoft shares continue climbing after exceeding analyst estimates
Google parent Alphabet Inc. reached a record share price a day after reporting better-than-projected quarterly revenue and profit fuelled by increased ad sales and a tighter lid on costs.
The strong growth, plus a cash balance of $72.8 billion (U.S.), gave Google’s board enough confidence to authorize $5.1billion in share buybacks, the first ever. All this shows how CEO Larry Page and new chief financial officer Ruth Porat are bringing more operational and financial discipline to the sprawling web enterprise.
“It’s moving in the right direction,” said Kerry Rice, a senior analyst at Needham & Co. Revenue.
The shares of Mountain View, Calif.-based Alphabet climbed 5.6 per cent to $719.33 at the close Friday in New York, its highest price since the stock hit the public market in August 2004.
Microsoft hits a high Microsoft Corp. reached a 15-year high after profit exceeded analysts’ estimates, buoyed by demand for Internet-based programs that handle business tasks and host companies’ applications.
Fiscal first-quarter profit, exclud- ing items such as severance and acquisition costs, amounted to 67 cents a share, and sales adjusted for deferrals were $21.7 billion, Microsoft said Thursday. Microsoft shares jumped 10 per cent to $52.87 at the close Friday in New York, reaching their highest price since March 2000. The stock has climbed 14 per cent this year.
Microsoft also said it cut more jobs in more than one business area and location, an additional reduction following a larger one in July. The company declined to say how many people were involved, but a person familiar with Microsoft’s actions put the number at about 1,000.
The gift of Twitter stock Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is relinquishing stock worth more than $200 million so the messaging service can award the shares to its employees.
The gesture disclosed Friday in a regulatory filing comes a week after Dorsey announced that he was laying off 8 per cent of Twitter’s workforce in an effort to make the company profitable.
The gift represents nearly onethird of the stock Dorsey owns in the San Francisco company.
Dorsey’s remaining stake will be worth about $460 million, based on Twitter’s current market value.
Twitter’s stock gained 5 per cent to $30.63 in Friday’s afternoon trading.