Wall Street transited the previous week with good news: solid balance sheets from tech companies like Microsoft y Meta (former Facebook). All these firms surprised the markets beating consensus analyst estimates for revenue and earnings per share. The market did not ignore it and raised their respective prices, which invites local savers to position themselves in these global firms with great potential for growth, after being so punished by the recessive effects of an ultra-aggressive Fed.
Through Argentine Certificates of Deposit (Cedears) the international stock market can be accessed by acquiring small portions of international company titles. Which, in this case, are of great interest because they are two of the five technology companies with the highest market capitalization worldwide (Big Five).
For the domestic market, faced with great volatility due to a recent big currency runthese instruments are attractive for serve as a hedge when trading in “Cash with Liquid” (CCL), which in April shot up to $456.26 (+12%), reaching a gap of 7-month highs.
After Microsoft’s balance sheet, should you buy?
Microsoft stood out in its results corresponding to the third quarter of its fiscal year 2023, by registering a net profit of US$18,299 million, which represents an increase of 9% year-on-year from US$16,728 million. While its earnings have been US$2.45 per share (+10%), breaking down the analyst consensus barrier located at US$2.23 per share.
Los quarterly income was US$52,857 millionwhich represents an increase of 7% compared to the same period in 2022, while operating income grew 10% and reached US$22.4 billion.
Microsoft Fundamental Analysis
Within the segments with the highest growth and that add value to the company, Alexis Annarattone, operator of LDT Brokers, tells iProfessional that Microsoft has a great future in the field of cloud services (Cloud), which now represented 42% of total revenue, and will be the main innovation platform in Artificial Intelligence (AI).
“‘Intelligent Cloud’ revenue was $22.1bn (+16%) from the last quarter. This shows that the company has a lot of potential in that area. While the device billing segment fell 30% throughout the last three months, giving a sign that the company’s strengths have changed. And, apparently, this technological giant is correctly interpreting the changes in demand to obtain greater profitability”, the expert explains.
Along the same lines, Damián Vlassich, Senior Equity Analyst at IOL, highlights that “it is a good company to invest thinking about the income that the development of AI will bring in a more mature stage, especially in the gaming area.”
Observations on Meta (ex Facebook): to buy or not?
The firm led by Mark Zukerberg announced some earnings for US$5,709 million, which represents a decrease of 24% from the US$7,465 million of the same time period in 2022. Although the profit per share has been US$2.20, 19% more than a year ago and above the consensus forecast, which estimated about US$2.03.
For his part, Revenues ended at US$28.650 millionwhich represents an increase of 3% in the year-on-year comparison and improves the forecast of analysts, of US$27,650 million.
Meta Fundamental Analysis
Annarattone warns that Facebook’s daily active users were 2.04 billion on average for March 2023, which implies an increase of 4% in the last year and improves the forecasts of 2,010 million. “This is an encouraging point, because the platform had been losing ground to other social networks,” he says.
“Another fact to highlight is that Meta is making strong progress in expanding the capacity of AI to support ads, Feed and Reels, and plans to make a greater investment for generative innovation initiatives, which promise to lead technology businesses in the coming years” says Annarattone.
How the price trend is coming and what the experts expect
Buying these Cedears is very simple, it can be done through any bank or financial broker with only one principal account that will be monitored by the National Securities Commission (CNV).
So you can take advantage of the rise that could reach METAwhich as of April 28 ended in and $s240,32which indicates a rise above 99.7% so far this year. While in pesos you can see the profitability effect that being in dollars brought, with the CCL skyrocketing up to 34% during 2023, which reached a rise of 165.79%.
Purchase recommendations
However, Annarattone clarifies that despite having had a notable rebound, Meta is far from its all-time highs reached in August 2021 upon reaching US$380 and it is recommended that this asset be positioned especially for profiles of investors with a greater appetite for risk who wish to save in the long term.
And from the side of Microsoft, the company closed the fourth month of the year at u$s307.26, increasing 28.10% this year. Which in pesos translates into an increase of 69%,76, doubling in percentage points the increase obtained in hard currency. Although Annarattone indicates that the upside potential could still exceed its ceiling of US$336.32 achieved in October 2021fundamentally if “the end of the Fed’s aggressive monetary policy is nearing, giving rise to risky assets in the US”.
