China’s search leader Baidu posted a surprise EPS jump in Q1, as the company decelerated its R&D spending. Beijing-based Baidu (BIDU) late Thursday reported earnings per share minus items of $1.24, up 22% from $1.01 in the year-earlier quarter and well above the 95 cents analysts expected. Sales rose 59% to $1.53 billion, just shy of the consensus of $1.54 billion by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. Baidu forecast current-quarter sales of
Software leader Microsoft late Thursday beat Wall Street’s target for earnings per share on in-line sales for the March quarter, citing momentum behind its cloud computing services. Microsoft (MSFT) earned 68 cents a share, down 6% from the year-earlier quarter but topping the consensus target of 63 cents among analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. Sales slipped a fraction to $20.4 billion from $20.49 billion, a shade over Wall Street’s forecast,
Big-cap biotech Biogen Idec reported solid Q1 revenue early Wednesday and guided 2014 above Wall Street’s expectations, but the stock rose just a fraction as biotechs had a bad day and Biogen revealed it’s being probed by authorities. Biogen (BIIB) said revenue rose 50.5% over the year-earlier quarter, to $2.13 billion, beating analysts’ consensus of $2 billion. But earnings per share of $2.47, up 25%, missed consensus of $2.56. The company,