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

The shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: 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. (NYSE: WORK), as the remote work software has been better adopted by large corporations.

Other companies including Slack, Zoom Video Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: ZM), and Cisco Systems Inc.'s (NASDAQ: 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.