Movers: Boeing, General Dynamics, F5, Fox Corp, Intuitive Surgical, Microsoft, Nasdaq Inc

  • Scott Peters
  • U.S.A. New York City
  • Jan 25, 2023
  • Boeing Company said rising costs overwhelmed higher sales but reiterated its free cash flow estimate for 2023. Microsoft offered a weak outlook on the deceleration in its cloud computing division. General Dynamics reported record order backlog.

    Boeing Company decreased 1.1% to $209.56 after the company said rising operating costs impacted quarterly results. 

    Boeing Company said revenue in the December quarter soared 35% to $20 billion and net loss shrank to $663 million from $4.2 billion. 

    Diluted loss per share fell to $1.06 from $7.02 a year ago.

    The aerospace company reaffirmed its 2023 operating cash flow outlook to between $4.5 billion and $6.5 billion and free cash flow between $3.0 billion and $5.0 billion. 

    Total company backlog at the end of the December quarter was $404 billion. 

    During the quarter, the company secured net orders for 376 aircrafts, including an order from United Airlines  for 100 737 MAX and 100 787 airplanes. 

    Commercial airplane division delivered 152 airplanes during the quarter and the backlog of commercial planes was over 4,500 airplanes valued at $330 billion. 

    General Dynamics Corp declined 3.4% to $227.20 after the defense contractor reported revenue and earnings ahead of expectations but offered a weak 2023 outlook. 

    Fourth quarter revenue increased 5.4% to $10.8 billion and net income increased 4% to $992 million and diluted earnings per share increased to $3.59 from $3.39 in the previous year. 

    During the  year, the company reduced debt by $1 billion, invested $1.1 billion in capital expenditures, paid $1.4 billion in dividends, and used $1.2 billion to repurchase shares.

    The company ended 2022 with $1.2 billion in cash and  equivalents on hand. 

    Full-year 2022 revenue increased 2.4% to $39.4 billion and net income rose 4.1% to $3.4 billion and diluted earnings per share increased 5.5% to $12.19. 

    With the record backlog of $91.1 billion, book-to-bill ratio for the December quarter was 1.2 and 1.1 for 2022. 

    F5 Inc declined 0.9% to $145.22 after the network security and cloud computing company reported a weak quarterly revenue growth but earnings were ahead of expectations.  

    F5 said revenue in the December quarter rose 2% to $700 million and net income declined to $72 million from $94 million and diluted earnings per share fell to $1.20 from $1.51 a year ago.

    Fox Corp Class A stock increased 2.6% to $33.53 and News Corp Class A increased 5% to $20.61 after Rupert Murdoch, the largest shareholder of both companies, called off the merger of two companies. 

    Intuitive Surgical, Inc dropped 4.7% to $245.88 after the maker of advanced surgical robotic equipment issued cautious earnings outlook. 

    Intuitive Surgical said revenue in the December quarter increased 7% to $1.66 billion and net income fell to $325 million from $381 million and diluted EPS fell to 91 cents from $1.04 a year ago.

    The company said it placed 365 da Vinci Surgical Systems, 4% lower than 385 in the comparable quarter a year ago and increased its installed base 12% from the previous year to 7,544 from 6,730 at the end of December 2021.  

    Microsoft Corp decreased 1.5% to $238.45 after the software developer reported weak quarterly revenue growth and earnings fell. 

    Microsoft said revenue in the December quarter increased 2% to $52.7 billion and net income declined 12% to $16.4 billion and diluted earnings share fell to $2.20 from $2.48 in previous year.

    In the conference call, CEO Satya Nadella said revenue in the current quarter is expected to fall between $50.5 billion and $51.5 billion, about $1.0 billion lower than what most analysts on Wall Street were looking for. 

    The revenue guidance at the mid-point of the range showed an increase of 3% from the previous year.  

    Azure cloud services revenue decelerated to 38% adjusted for currency swings in the fiscal second quarter from 42% in the previous quarter as clients looked for ways to optimize spending and the division's sales growth declined to 31% including the effect of a strong dollar. 

    Azure sales growth dropped to "mid-30s" by the end of the quarter and is expected to fall by another "4-to-5 percentage points" in the fiscal second half which ends in June 2023. 

    Microsoft returned $9.7 billion to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends in the fiscal second quarter, a decrease of 11% compared from the comparable quarter in the previous year.

    Microsoft declared a quarterly dividend of $0.68 per share payable March 9, 2023, to shareholders of record on February 16, 2023. 

    The ex-dividend date will be February 15, 2023.

    Nasdaq Inc declined 6% to 11,251.67 after the operator of a stock exchange reported weaker-than-expected quarterly revenues. 

    Fourth quarter revenue increased 2% to $906 million and net income declined to $241 million from $259 million and diluted earnings per share dropped to 48 cents from 51 cents in the previous year. 

    In 2022, the company returned $1.01 billion to shareholders, $633 million in share repurchases and 383 million in dividends. 

    The exchange operator has $650 million available for share repurchase following the board's authorization to increase the repurchase amount. 

    The company initiated its 2023 non-GAAP operating expense guidance to a range of  $1,770 to $1,850 million and estimated non-GAAP tax rate to be in the range of  24% to 26%.

     

Annual Returns

Company Ticker 2025 2024 2023
Boeing Company The BA -3% -32% 40%
News Corporation NWS -2% 21% 40%
Intuitive Surgical Inc ISRG -1% 56% 23%
Nasdaq Inc NDAQ -1% 34% -10%
General Dynamics Corporation GD -1% 1% 4%
F5 Networks Inc FFIV 3% 41% 16%
Microsoft Corporation MSFT 1% 12% 54%