About buying Microsoft stocks...

[Jas00555]

So my friend and I were at work about Microsoft and stuff since he's a techie guy (unfortunately, he's a scumbag android user, so we get into arguments all of the time). Well, I guess he's big into stocks or something because he's a business major and he sounded really excited about Satya (which is weird because Wall Street had the opposite reaction).

Anyways, he knows I'm a big Microsoft guy so he was asking me about Microsoft's stock and if I thought it was a good buy. I told him up front that I have no ideas about stocks. Like not even the fainted clue, BUT I told him "I know a pretty large community of pretty smart people who would know" and after the people at CNET turned me down, I came here (obvious kidding).

So, my questions to you guys are "is Microsoft's stock a good buy?" and if so "how would be the best way to do it?". He has a Windows 8 computer, so I'm curious to know if he could use something from the Bing finance app or a third party one. Thanks in advance.

 

[dkediger]

They're a solid consistent dividend income producer. Not so much growth of investment through price appreciation. Buy and hold for long term steady income, not for churn through price inflation.

 

[tgp]

So my friend and I were at work about Microsoft and stuff since he's a techie guy (unfortunately, he's a scumbag android user, so we get into arguments all of the time). Well, I guess he's big into stocks or something because he's a business major and he sounded really excited about Satya (which is weird because Wall Street had the opposite reaction).

Anyways, he knows I'm a big Microsoft guy so he was asking me about Microsoft's stock and if I thought it was a good buy. I told him up front that I have no ideas about stocks. Like not even the fainted clue, BUT I told him "I know a pretty large community of pretty smart people who would know" and after the people at CNET turned me down, I came here (obvious kidding).

If your friend is "big into stocks" I would think he would have a good idea of what's going on. Stock prices go up and down with reports of new CEOs and earnings and new products and whatever. I found it interesting how Apple recently reported record earnings, and their stock price dropped. Google makes a deal to sell Motorola, and their stock price surged (I guess that kinda makes sense; they basically ended up paying $8 billion or so for patents, which was why they wanted Motorola in the first place).

My personal opinion is that Microsoft can only go up from here. At this point divisions like Xbox, Bing, RT, and WP (not an exhaustive list) are a financial liability. It's not uncommon for a new CEO to cut money-losing departments. If rumors of Microsoft selling off or dropping some of these division actually happen, it would likely boost the stock prices. That's what anyone into stocks is ultimately worried about. I'm not saying that would be good for the long haul; it probably wouldn't be. But, stock prices could go up, which is what a stock broker is looking for.

 

[Jas00555]

If your friend is "big into stocks" I would think he would have a good idea of what's going on. Stock prices go up and down with reports of new CEOs and earnings and new products and whatever. I found it interesting how Apple recently reported record earnings, and their stock price dropped. Google makes a deal to sell Motorola, and their stock price surged (I guess that kinda makes sense; they basically ended up paying $8 billion or so for patents, which was why they wanted Motorola in the first place).

My personal opinion is that Microsoft can only go up from here. At this point divisions like Xbox, Bing, RT, and WP (not an exhaustive list) are a financial liability. It's not uncommon for a new CEO to cut money-losing departments. If rumors of Microsoft selling off or dropping some of these division actually happen, it would likely boost the stock prices. That's what anyone into stocks is ultimately worried about. I'm not saying that would be good for the long haul; it probably wouldn't be. But, stock prices could go up, which is what a stock broker is looking for.

I'd imagine that he's already got a good idea, but he probably wanted an insider's perspective, that is, some who's been following them a while and know what direction they're going in. I also said "I guess he is" because I don't really know, but he was asking about it. I just assumed he was.

 

[Jas00555]

They're a solid consistent dividend income producer. Not so much growth of investment through price appreciation. Buy and hold for long term steady income, not for churn through price inflation.

so... What you're saying is that they're worth it in the long run because they're steady growth and it doesn't have a lot of fluctuations? Again, I know almost nothing about stocks, so you'll have to forgive me.

 

[dkediger]

It really depends on the goal for holding them as a stock, but yes, they're generally considered a solid, mature, long term stock.

They're not likely to generate a quick buck as a stock, but rather be a solid base of a portfolio of stocks. They'll earn some steady income, and they're somewhat diverse compared to other tech stocks, so they can moderate the fluctuations of more volatile holdings, like say Apple.

In general, I think most analysts would grade them as undervalued, meaning they could be a good buy, even for the short term. Some of their risks would be their change in leadership, changes in desktop computing, mobile strategy, and some activist board members.

 

[Jas00555]

Thanks dude. One more question, and this is just a question for me. Are the options to buy/trade/sell on the W8.1 Bing Finance any good? There are a lot of companies there, but I'm not sure if they're any good or not (I would assume they are if Bing picked them), but I'm not familiar with them

 

[dkediger]

Honestly, I don't have an opinion one way or the other. Haven't spent any tome with it as I don't really actively trade/manage my accounts.

I would presume the brokerage links just open web portals. If you have an account with one of those, Bing Finance might be an OK portal. Other than that, the market data is all Morningstar, which would be ok for casual, non-professional, non real time use.

I'm not sure how they generate their fund picks. There's a lot of granularity in fund category presented, with no real indication of what that means, or a way to rank/drill down through categories.

Overall, in the little time I just spent with it, looks good for a free program. A lot of broad information to look through, good basic stuff to get acquainted with saving/investing. Not too much depth though.

I wouldn't consider it a replacement for a good, independent financial advisor though. But still looks like a good place to spend some time backgrounding on money matters.