Online subscribers spur these software stocks

Article Excerpt

These three leading software makers continue to profit from their growing number of subscription sales over the Internet. That has steadied their income from product upgrades. We like the outlook for all three, but recommend just two of them for new buying. MICROSOFT CORP. $99 (Nasdaq symbol MSFT; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 7.7 billion; Market cap: $762.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 7.6; Dividend yield: 1.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average) is the world’s largest software company. Its Windows operating system powers about 90% of the world’s personal computers. Microsoft continues to benefit from its 2014 decision to shift to cloud-computing services: instead of buying its software as a one-time purchase, clients now access that software online through subscriptions. They can also store data files using remote servers. In the fiscal 2018 third quarter, ended March 31, 2018, revenue rose 15.5%, to $26.8 billion from $23.2 billion a year earlier. The company saw revenue gains for all three of its businesses: More Personal Computing…