Microsoft: Stock price plummets due to weaker cloud outlook
While Meta's stocks have seen a real rally, Thursday was the worst stock market day for Microsoft since 2020. The cloud is to blame.
(Image: Skorzewiak/Shutterstock.com)
After Microsoft's outlook for its upcoming cloud business was more subdued than hoped for when presenting its financial results, the US software company's stock price plummeted by 10 percent on Thursday. This was likely contributed to by the fact that although Microsoft was able to report a significant increase in cloud capacity bookings, this was primarily thanks to OpenAI. It remains unclear when the AI company will actually book and, above all, pay for these capacities. The considerable price correction on the stock market is the strongest decline for Microsoft shares since March 2020, writes CNBC. The group's market value fell by 357 billion US dollars on Thursday alone.
According to the financial results presented on Wednesday, Microsoft has once again significantly increased its revenue and profits, with cloud businesses once again being the biggest growth drivers. However, the projected Azure growth of 39 percent was slightly below the expectations of investors. The price correction was therefore already indicated in after-hours trading, but on the trading day, things got considerably worse. Microsoft's CFO had pointed out that they could have achieved higher growth if they had provided more cloud capacity for customers and not held it back for Microsoft's own AI capacities. However, the argument apparently did not hold water.
Videos by heise
Unlike Microsoft, the presentation of financial results at Meta has truly excited the stock markets. The Facebook group's shares rose by more than 10 percent on Thursday alone. How the cloud business as a whole is doing and what expectations the other heavyweights in the industry have will become clearer next week when Alphabet and Amazon present their financial results.
(mho)
