Tech Giants Report

Technology giants Microsoft, Amazon and Sandisk reported after the bell on Thursday. Allan Edwards co-CEO of The Markets Are Open stated "this was the kind of day where you book off everything to make sure you are home at 4:00 PM to hear the latest results of these companies."

Microsoft's profit rose to $4.5 billion or 51 cents a share and revenue rose to 16.04 billion. Edwards went on "It was just a blah quarter, profit improved from the last year, but now what do I do? Should I bid it higher or lower I really don't know." This view has been the dominant view on the street as Microsft shares have remained flat in after hours trading. After hours trading is from the time the markets close until 8:00PM where typically machines accept trades usually at a lower volume. There where whispers on Wall Street that Apple would have surpassed Microsoft in terms of revenue in the latest quarter symbolizing a changing of the guard but this was not the case. Microsoft maintained a $400 million revenue lead over its top competitor in the current quarter. Edwards stated "this should be a psychological boost going forward for Microsoft employees knowing they are ahead of Apple, I expect this will increase the productivity of their workforce."

Sandisk corporation reported earnings per share of $1.08 on revenue of 1.18 billion dollars. Edwards stated "I am flummoxed by Sandisks managements execution in the current quarter, the execution just wasn't there." Sandisk shares have tumbled in after hours, currently down 8%. Edwards continued "I think shareholders are also digesting news of a change in board of directors, as a shareholder this creates uncertainty and when there is uncertainty there is selling pressure."

Amazon also reported after the close its shares are currently down over 12% in after hours trading. To explain this drop Edwards conducted an Economics 101 lesson "right now there are more sellers than buyers for Amazon and when this happens the price of something falls until demand increases." Amazon's net income rose to $207 million or 45 cents a share on revenue of $6.57 billion. Edwards stated "Amazon significantly improved its revenue in the last quarter, but the profitability did not go up as much as I expected, I was really expecting to see 50 cents a share." When asked what Amazon was now worth the usually confident Edwards hesitated "I am not sure... I and many other analysts now have to update our stock valuation models from this miss by Amazon."