Microsoft Is a Beast Again -- 5 Things Explain It All

Here is what the company's quarter just told Wall Street.

Author:: Brian Sozzi
Publish date:: Jul 21, 2017 7:18 AM EDT

Folks, sleepy Microsoft (MSFT) - Get Report is anything but tired -- it's a growth company that Wall Street is badly underestimating.

How else could one sum up the tech giant's results? From an analytical perspective, Microsoft just ticked off all the boxes on why one should stay bullish:

1. Epic earnings beat that signals Wall Street needs to materially hike its profit forecasts to adjust for Microsoft's new normal.

2. CEO Satya Nadella's shift to cloud services is paying off not only on one single area, but across product verticals.

3. The computing business has magically come alive amid a host of new products and marketing investments. So much for tablets taking over the world.

4. The impact of LinkedIn is being very underestimated by analysts -- it notched $1.1 billion in sales during the most recent quarter. Microsoft has a nice short-term runway to surprise Wall Street with its big purchase.

5. Cash is being deployed to suck up outstanding shares -- Microsoft's cash deployment is also being overlooked to a large extent.

While investors are naturally obsessed with Apple's (AAPL) - Get Report future prospects, they should be equally jacked up by Microsoft. Wait until those Microsoft layoffs do their part to pad the bottom line...

(This article originally appeared at 4:38 p.m. ET today on Real Money, our premium site for active traders. Click here to get great columns like this from Jim Cramer and other writers even earlier in the trading day.)

More of What's Trending on TheStreet: