Microsoft got a vote of confidence from Canadian businessman Kevin O’Leary this week, praising the company as it pushes its boundaries into the gaming landscape.
Microsoft obliterated analyst expectations, reporting their fourth quarter earnings on Thursday that showed earnings per share coming in at $1.14 versus $1.08 EPS estimates and sales at $29.22 billion–$900,000 more than expected.
“The gaming side of this company, the ability to move it all on to subscription service and become a ubiquitous platform globally in gaming is a potential that not many people talk about yet the company continues to move in that direction,” said O’Leary. “I think that’s why this stock will actually expand its P/E in the next year. It will start to trade as something different than a dino tech that it used to be.”
Microsoft is a core holding in O’Leary’s O’Shares Global Internet Giants ETF (NYSEArca: OGIG), which targets a rules-based index that is designed to give investors exposure to securities exhibiting quality and growth characteristics within the internet sector. In addition to the gaming landscape, Microsoft is also making headway with its commercial cloud business.
“Our commercial cloud business surpassed more than $23 billion in revenue for the year with gross margin expanding to 57%,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. “The strength of our results reflects accelerating innovation and the trust customers are placing in us to power their digital transformation.”
Shares of Microsoft were up 1.79% at the close of Friday’s trading session and 23.6% higher year-to-date.
For more market trends, visit ETFTrends.com.