Company Update (NASDAQ:MSFT): Microsoft retreats in smartphone battle, 1,850 jobs to go

[Reuters] – Microsoft Corp announced more big cuts to its smartphone business on Wednesday, just two years after it bought handset maker Nokia in an ill-fated attempt to take on market leaders Apple and Samsung. The U.S. company said it would shed up to 1,850 jobs, most of them in Finland, and write down $950 million from the business. Read more on this. Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) , valued at $410.95B, began trading this morning at $51.92. Looking at the equity, the company’s one day range is $51.79 to $52.31 with a trailing 52-week range being $39.72 to $56.85. Microsoft (MSFT) shares are currently priced at 19.39x this year’s forecasted earnings, which makes them relatively expensive compared to the industry’s 7.34x earnings multiple for the same period. The company pays shareholders $1.44 per share in dividend income per year, for a current yield of 2.88%. Consensus earnings for the current quarter by the 29 sell-side analysts covering the stock is an estimate of $0.58 per share, which would be $0.02 worse than the year-ago quarter and a $0.09 sequential decrease. What we find to be interesting is that the full-year EPS estimate of $2.66 is a $0.20 improvement when compared to the previous year’s annual results. The quarterly earnings estimate is based on a consensus revenue forecast of the current quarter of $22.17 Billion. If realized, that would be a 0.05% decrease over the year-ago quarter. Recently, Macquarie Initiated MSFT at Neutral (Mar 4, 2016). Previously, Morgan Stanley upgraded MSFT from Equal-Weight to Overweight. When considering if the stock is under or overvalued, the average price target is $57.66, which is 11.06% above where the stock opened this morning. See more in (NASDAQ:MSFT) Similar Articles: Stock Update: Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) – Microsoft Sues DoJ Over Data Request Order (MSFT) Stock Update (NASDAQ:MSFT): Who’s Hiring: Microsoft posts 500 Puget Sound jobs in one week Stock Update: Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) – Analyst: 2016 will be a ‘206 area code street battle for the cloud’ and Microsoft could beat Amazon