Microsoft rose after FY22 Q4 earnings. Why did it report Q4 earnings in July?
$Microsoft(MSFT.US$ reported earnings for Q4 of the fiscal year 2022, Q2 of the civil year ended June 30 after the bell on Tuesday, June 26. Despite failing Q4 expectations, Microsoft stock rose before the bell on Wednesday on optimism about the FY23 outlook.
Why did it report Q4 earnings in July? And what is the difference between a fiscal year and a calendar year?
A civil year, or a calendar year, is based on the Gregorian calendar. It begins on January 1 and ends on December 31. A civil year is divided into four quarters (Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4), each consisting of three consecutive months.
A fiscal year, or a financial year, refers to a 12-month period used to better record a company's operations. A fiscal year can follow the calendar year, or it can be a period of any twelve consecutive months upon regulatory approval.
Most companies set their fiscal year the same as the calendar year for convenience, like $Alphabet-C(GOOG.US$, $Tesla(TSLA.US$.
But there are exceptions, Microsoft's fiscal year begins on July 1 and ends on June 30 of the following year. That's why it's announcing fourth-quarter earnings at this time.
Furthermore, Alibaba's fiscal year is from April 1st to March 31st of the following year. Most Japanese companies are like this.
Now, you could quiz your friends: "Why do these companies have different fiscal year start dates?"![]()
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SpyderCall : good explanation
I remember in the past I would search the internet for hours to find this simple info.
whqqq : Thank you for your detailed explanation.
I only knew that Alibaba used fiscal year calculation before.
72736141so : July reported earnings because Microsoft July 1st was the begging of it's fiscal year..