In what could be seen as yet another comment to closely control analysts’ expectations, Microsoft Corp’s chief financial officer Greg Maffei told reporters in Boston that the software giant’s earnings for fiscal 1999 could provide an upside surprise. Maffei, speaking at the SG Cowen Fall Technology Conference, said earnings per share for the year ending June 30 could come in as high as $2.20 – when the consensus estimate of analysts surveyed by First Call was for $2.16 – thanks to a boost from strong sales of Windows NT. Microsoft and Maffei have a history of closely guiding analysts’ estimates only to repeatedly edge them out by a few pennies.
