Microsoft Shares Jump 8.5% As Company Reports Massive Increase In Teams Usage

The shares of Microsoft Corporation MSFT surged in both the regular and after-hours session on Monday as the company reported increased usage of its products during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

What Happened

In an update to its Saturday statement on cloud services on Monday, Microsoft said that it saw a 775% increase in "Teams' calling and meeting monthly users in the last one month period in Italy, where social distancing or shelter in place orders have been enforced."

The telecommute-enabling application now has 44 million daily active users, according to the statement.

The Redmond-based company said that the demand for other products also increased. Windows Virtual Desktop usage grew three times and government use of public Power BI to share COVID-19 dashboards with citizens increased 42%.

Why It Matters

Microsoft is one among the companies that are seeing increased usage during the pandemic as they provide services that enable remote communication.

The stock is up 1.65% year-till-date, even as the overall Nasdaq composite index is down 13.36%.

Microsoft Teams has outpaced others in terms of active users, including Slack Technologies Inc. WORK, as the remote work software has been better adopted by large corporations.

Other companies including Slack, Zoom Video Communications Inc. ZM, and Cisco Systems Inc.'s CSCO Webex have also seen a major increase in their product usage during the pandemic.

Price Action

Microsoft's shares closed 7.03% higher at $160.23 on Monday and added another 1.48% at $162.60 in the after-hours session.