Square (NYSE: SQ) slumps 5.6% after Q2 adjusted EPS guidance of 14 cents-16 cents trails the consensus estimate of 18 cents and guidance for Q2 adjusted revenue of $545M-$555M trails the consensus of $555.3M.Read More...

Brett Arsenault, the top-ranking cybersecurity executive at Microsoft, had fallen asleep on top of his cell phone when it shocked him awake with a buzz. A cyberattack, later dubbed NotPetya, had begun locking down computers and shutting down businesses in Ukraine.READ MORE...

Microsoft Corporation MSFT 0.34% reported strong third-quarter earnings beat Wednesday on the back of continuing strength in its cloud computing business, coming in at $1.14 per share to top analysts’ estimates by 14 cents.The company also reported quarterly sales of $30.6 billion, beating the Street estimate of $29.84 billion by more than 2.5 percent.

The proposed merger of telecom companies Sprint Corp. and T-Mobile US is reportedly be facing a regulatory hurdle. Citing people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is skeptical of the $26.5 billion all-stock acquisition of Sprint by T-Mobile over antitrust concerns. The proposed acquisition, which was first announced nearly a year ago, is apparently under the DOJ’s scanner as the Department is questioning the companies' arguments that the merged entity would create efficiencies, as reported by the Journal citing people familiar with the matter. However, T-Mobile CEO John Legere tweeted about the report, "The premise of this story, as summarized in the first paragraph, is simply untrue."

The company scores a 99 on Investor’s Business Daily’s Relative Price Strength Rating and that is the highest score you can get. Looking at the daily chart we see that a trend channel has formed from the low in December.The indicators also just made a bullish crossover on April 10. The Tickeron AI Trend Prediction tool generated a bullish signal on April 9 and that signal calls for a gain of at least 4% over the next month.

Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) will permanently layoff 352 employees, according to California regulatory letters spotted by CRN. Read More...

Oracle shares whipsawed in after-hours trading Thursday, after the company exceeded expectations on both earnings and revenue. For the fiscal third quarter, the cloud computing company’s adjusted earnings increased +8% year-over-year to 87 cents per share, beating Wall Street's expectations of 84 cents per share.The company’s revenue rose +3% year-over-year to $9.61 billion in the quarter, surpassing analysts’ estimates of $9.59 billion. Following the report, Oracle stock price jumped initially during extended trading Thursday, but only to pull back later that day. CEO Safra Catz indicated that the company is expecting double-digit percentage range for full-year 2019 earnings-per-share growth. 

Last Friday, tech giant Microsoft entered federal court in San Jose, California to sue a unit of Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn over unpaid royalties on the consumer devices it makes for others. Microsoft has a patent license with Foxconn that demands the latter make payments for smartphones, tablets and other devices, as well as to provide an annual audit to Microsoft.Taiwan's Foxconn on Tuesday responded to Microsoft’s patent infringement lawsuit by saying that as a contract manufacturer, it has never needed to pay any royalties to the software giant. Following this suit, it now seems that Foxconn needs to own up to its defaults and pay back the outstanding royalties to Microsoft.

As Microsoft turns to renewable sources of energy, the company recently announced the signing of a 15-year power purchase agreement for the energy produced by a 74-megawatt solar power facility in North Carolina, called the Wilkinson Solar Energy Center.The company boasts of its commitment to local communities that benefit economically from Microsoft’s energy projects. Tech giants are increasingly turning to renewable energy projects.

Nutanix delivered earnings better than expected for its fiscal second quarter, but indicated weaker guidance for the next quarter compared to analysts’ projections. The cloud services company’s adjusted net loss for the three months ending January 31 came in at -23 cents per share, which is less pronounced than analysts’ Wall Street estimates of a loss of -25 cents per share.However, billings (or signed contracts not yet on paper) for the quarter - at $413.4 million – came in lower than analysts’ estimates of $416.5 million. What could potentially disappoint some investors is Nutanix’s projections for the fiscal third.

Box Inc. shares plunged -20% Thursday, after the company released full-year earnings guidance lower than analysts’ expectations. The cloud services company has forecasted its bottom-line to range between a loss of 3 cents per share to positive earnings of 1 cent per share for FY 2020.Revenue for the quarter came in at $163.7 million, which is below analysts’ expected $164.2 million.  The company’s billings increased +16% year-over-year to $237.7 million According to Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box, the company saw strength in add-on product attach rates and delivered solid growth in six-figure deals in fiscal 2019.

Square beat fourth quarter earnings estimates, but lagged behind analysts' expectations on first quarter guidance.  The merchant services aggregator & mobile payments company, co-founded by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, reported adjusted earnings of 14 cents per share for the fourth quarter, which exceeded analysts’ expectations of 13 cents a share (based on Refinitiv data).Another major win for the company came in the form of its peer-to-peer Cash App’s monthly active customer count doubling from a year earlier to reach more than 15 million in December 2018. However, the company’s outlook on the upcoming first quarter earnings fell short of analysts’ expectations.

Palo Alto Networks reported better-than-expected earnings for the fiscal second quarter, and also announced a stock buyback program - leading to its shares jumping +11% in after-hours trading Tuesday. The cybersecurity company raked in  adjusted earnings of $1.51 per share in the three months ending January, beating analysts’ estimates of $1.22 per share (based on Refinitiv data).Product revenues, grew +33% to $271.6 million, while those from services increased +29% to $439.6 million. Palo Alto also announced that its board authorized up to $1 billion in share repurchases, and introduced its Cortex AI-based security platform. The company is apparently gung-ho in bolstering its cloud solutions and cyber security business.

Cloud software company Nutanix (Nasdaq: NTNX) has performed better than 92% of stocks over the past year, on a price basis that is.In January, the stock broke above the $47 area and has continued higher. The Tickeron AI Trend Prediction tool generated a bullish signal for Nutanix on February 14.

Oracle rebounds Friday, after getting dumped by the Oracle of Omaha's company on Valentine Day. On Thursday February 14, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway disclosed that it had divested its entire stake in software company Oracle – leading to Oracle shares tumbling that day.But the very next day, the stock price increased almost +1%. According to Berkshire’s regulatory filing, the conglomerate dumped all of the 41.4 million Oracle shares worth around $2.13 billion that it had held as of the end of the third quarter.

NetApp Inc.’s fiscal third-quarter revenue fell short of analysts’ estimates, leading to its shares declining -8.8% Thursday. The hybrid cloud & data storage/management company’s revenue increased +2% year-over-year to touch $1.56 billion in the fiscal third-quarter, but still missed analysts’ expectation of $1.60 billion (based on FactSet poll). Nevertheless, the company reported adjusted earninsg of $1.20 a share for the quarter, thereby beating analysts' expectations of $1.15 a share (based on FactSet poll).The company is expecting revenue to range from $1.59 billion to $1.69 billion for the fiscal fourth quarter, while analysts’ prediction is $1.71 billion. 

The Tickeron AI Trend Prediction tool generated a bullish signal on application software firm Fortinet (Nasdaq: FTNT) on February 7 and that was the day after the company reported earnings.Fortinet also beat on the top line with revenue of $507 million while the estimate was for $496 million. Something that stood out about Fortinet’s earnings report from some of the other tech companies was how China was impacting the company.

A large part of the sales growth can be attributed to the tech giant’s cloud computing business which grew +48% year-over-year to touch $9 billion in the quarter. Microsoft has been increasingly steering focus towards its commercial cloud segment Azure, which is apparently a strong competitor to Amazon Web Services.Microsoft recently announced a deal to become pharmacy retail company Walgreens' cloud provider, wherein it intends to improve data processing on customers' health conditions and therefore potentially enable pharmacists to offer better pharmacy/wellness solutions.

Shares of Microsoft stock fell as much as 4 percent Wednesday after the company issued its fiscal second-quarter earnings report with slightly lower revenue than expected. Read More...  

File hosting & cloud services company Dropbox plans to acquire HelloSign for $230 million. Dropbox is apparently keen on diversifying into workflow processes to expand its storage capabilities – something that it hopes to achieve by buying HelloSign. According to Whitney Bouck, COO at HelloSign, the company will remain an independent entity within the Dropbox family, if the acquisition happens. Subject to regulatory approval, the deal is expected to close in the first quarter.