Q1 Earnings Deluge After the Bell: MSFT, FB, CMG & More

Microsoft MSFT outperformed expectations on both top and bottom lines in its fiscal Q3 2019 quarter after the closing bell Wednesday afternoon. Earnings of $1.14 per share surpassed the even $1.00 analysts had been expecting, on $30.57 billion in revenues that came in stronger than the $29.84 billion estimate. Highlights in Microsoft's quarter include $9.7 billion from its Cloud-based business, which features Azure, which brought in quarterly revenues of $7.3 billion.

This Zacks Rank #2 (Buy)-rated software giant has not missed earnings estimates in three solid years. Shares of MSFT are trading up 3% in after-hours activity.

Facebook FB put up strong Q1 numbers as well, though also took the opportunity to write down $3 billion in quarterly profits to allocate toward legal expenses stemming from the FTC investigation into whether or not Facebook violated users' privacy. Thus, what would have been a beat on the bottom line becomes a miss: 85 cents per share as opposed to the $1.89 in the Zacks consensus. Revenues of $15.08 billion outpaced expectations of $14.97 billion.

Daily Active Users (DAU) reached 1.56 billion for the quarter, higher than analysts were looking for. Monthly Active Users (MAU) brought 2.38 billion, also a beat from expectations. Highlights included $6.42 Average Revenue per User (ARPU), with Mobile claiming 93% of total ad revenue for Facebook.

Another strong quarter came from Chipotle CMG Wednesday afternoon, as well: $3.40 per share on the bottom line outdid the $3.00 in the Zacks consensus, $1.31 billion was better than the $1.27 billion. Comps were an impressive 9.9%, as opposed to 7.3% expected, while Digital orders rose 100.7% year over year, now making up 15.7% of Chipotle sales. Shares are up moderately after first falling on the news.

PayPal PYPL also beat estimates on the bottom line -- 78 cents per share versus 68 cents expected -- on in-line quarterly sales of $4.13 billion. Shares are trading lower on the earnings release, however, as expectations for active Venmo accounts, at 40 million, failed to meet estimates. Guidance for Q2 was also notched down, and shares are off 1.8% from Wednesday's close.

Finally, Visa V posted a solid beat on top and bottom in its fiscal Q2 Wednesday afternoon: $1.31 per share beat the $1.24 expected, and sales of $5.49 billion outpaced the $5.43 billion our analysts were expecting. Shares were trading down in late activity on the news by about 1.5%, but this is after having climbed 22% so far, year to date.

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Facebook, Inc. (FB) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
PayPal Holdings, Inc. (PYPL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
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Visa Inc. (V) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
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