Microsoft Corp, the world's largest software company by revenue, is scheduled to report its second quarter (Q2 2023) results on Tuesday (January 24, 2023).
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Analysts predicted that the tech giant will report a 2.4 percent rise in revenue at $52.96 billion, while the consensus estimate for EPS (earnings per share) for the quarter is expected to fall as much as 9 percent to $2.30, capital.com reported.
Wall Street is looking for $53.2 billion in revenue, a 3 percent year-on-year increase, and a record quarterly sales number, Simply Wall Street said.
According to reports, the company expects to incur $1.2 billion in costs related to severance payments, changes to the hardware portfolio, and lease consolidation during the reporting quarter.
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Microsoft's billion-dollar charge will cut profit by 12 cents a share, and could resonate beyond the tech sector, some analysts said.
Last week, Microsoft Corp informed that it would eliminate 10,000 jobs as its cloud-computing customers reassess their spending and the company braces for a potential recession.
In a note to employees, CEO Satya Nadella attempted to address the divergent outlook for different parts of the business. Customers wanted to "optimize their digital spend to do more with less" and "exercise caution as some parts of the world are in a recession and other parts are anticipating one," he said. "At the same time, the next major wave of computing is being born with advances in AI."
Nadella said the layoffs, affecting less than 5 percent of Microsoft's workforce, would conclude by the end of March, with notifications beginning Wednesday.
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However, Microsoft would keep hiring in "strategic areas," he said. AI is likely to be one of those areas. Nadella this week touted AI to world leaders gathered in Davos, Switzerland, claiming the technology would transform its products and touch people around the globe.
Microsoft has looked at adding to its $1-billion stake in OpenAI, the startup behind the Silicon Valley chatbot sensation known as ChatGPT, which Microsoft plans to soon market through its cloud service.