Microsoft Corp tried, but failed to impress the markets yesterday with their storming figures released late Monday. Traders were out to sell the stock regardless, and it fell $7.63 or 6.4% to close at $112.13 after shedding $1.23 on Monday. Some traders were trying to justify their actions by shutting the horse’s door long after it had bolted implying that analysts’ estimates, around the $0.85 per share mark, were too conservative given Microsoft’s $0.87 result for the quarter (CI No 2,961). Strange that, because Microsoft’s policy of smoothing out its quarters by deferring already-earned revenues from products such as Windows 95 to later periods by putting them in the balance sheet, means the figures are even stronger than the top and bottom lines appear. The mis-named unearned revenues line rose from $54m last year to $560m at the end of the fiscal year ending June 30. Yesterday’s prices value Microsoft at $72,321m and Netscape Communications Corp, which always takes a bit of a battering whenever the Redmonder does ‘well’, falling another 9.1% or $4.25 to $42.25 yesterday, at just $3,600m. Those two numbers should cause a few quakes in Mountain View when Microsoft finally gets round to seriously going after the Web browser market. Obviously CFO Mike Brown and treasurer Greg Maffei have got to take some acting lessons to convince the cynics that their views really are upbeat for the future of the company. Mary Meeker at Morgan Stanley estimates $0.85 per share for the current quarter and revenues of $2,200m. First Call’s mean estimate is $0.90 for the quarter. For the year, the Morgan Stanley estimate is $4.10, admitting that it could be conservative.
