EMC, Apple, Microsoft shine

Though the macroeconomic picture remains cloudy, major IT vendors, such as Apple, Microsoft, and EMC, for the most part reported solid third-quarter earnings this week, giving technology investors hope for the rest of the year.

Thursday was a busy day on Wall Street with Microsoft, EMC, and Motorola reporting.

After the market closed, Microsoft reported a 23 percent quarterly jump in net income, which hit $4.29 billion as demand for Windows and Office software remained strong. Revenue was $13.76 billion, a 27 increase from one year earlier. The company said it was the fastest revenue growth spurt for their first fiscal quarter since 1999, around the height of the dot-com boom. That should help reassure some investors that despite concerns about the U.S. economy, at least certain areas of the IT sector are still managing to show strong growth.

In after-hours trading right after the announcement, Microsoft shares rose by $1.98 to $33.98.

EMC’s profit jumped as the data-storage company made gains on the sale of part of its stake in virtualization software maker VMware. EMC reported that net income was $492.9 million, compared with a profit of $283.7 million last year. Revenue jumped to $3.3 billion from $2.8 billion a year earlier. Though much of the gains were from a one-time sale of part of VMware to Cisco, other parts of the business did well: Software rose 25 percent, storage business sales rose 9 percent, and service grew 25 percent. EMC shares rose $1.92 on the news, to close at $24.45.

Motorola, meanwhile, reported an abrupt drop, of 94 percent, in quarterly profit, as it searched to find a follow-up to its Razr mobile phone. Net income was $60 million, while revenue fell 17 percent to $8.81 billion. Nevertheless investors apparently were heartened that the company saw small boosts in the average selling price for mobile devices — something that even mighty Nokia did not experience last quarter.

Motorola forecast earnings from continuing operations for the fourth quarter of $0.12 to $0.14 a share, while analysts had expected earnings of $0.10. So even though profit was way down, company shares managed to jump $0.75 to $19.30 Thursday.

Apple kicked off the week on a high note, on Monday reporting solid earnings that were fueled by record Mac sales and shipments of 1.12 million iPhones. The company handily beat analyst estimates with income of $904 million, 67 percent higher than a year earlier. Earnings per share were $1.01. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial had forecast $760.45 million in net income and earnings of $0.84 per share. Apple jumped $11.80 to close at $186.16 the day after its earnings report. Even though Apple shares have been trading at all-time highs, the common wisdom on Wall Street is that things will get even better.

Brokerages like Goldman Sachs and UBS reiterated “buy” ratings and Citi Investment Research headlined its report: “The Best Is Yet To Come.” With the new Mac OS, Leopard, going to market on Friday, sales are expected to do well through the holiday season.

Still, concerns about the U.S. economy linger. With the price of oil skyrocketing and the housing-market crisis making headlines, investors remain worried that economic concerns will weigh on IT sales. But earnings from the major IT bellwethers over the last few weeks are showing that technology is proving to be resilient, so far.