Microsoft Stock Climbs To Record High News Of Software Package Shipments Inspires Investors

Microsoft Corp. announced Monday that it would begin shipping an updated collection of its top-selling software applications on Aug. 24, the same day it is scheduled to release Windows 95, its next generation of operating system software for personal computers.

Investors, which seem to view the future of dozens of computer hardware and software companies as riding on the success of Windows 95, pushed Microsoft’s stock to a record high.

The collection of application programs, including a word processor, electronic calendar and spread sheet, is an update of Microsoft Office for Windows and will be called Office for Windows 95.

It had been expected to be on store shelves within 30 days after Windows 95 made its debut, although some industry analysts said it has been widely known that Microsoft was aiming to release the new applications and the operating system simultaneously.

Within two hours of the news that the date had been moved up, Microsoft stock price had jumped $4.125 to a record high of $99.75. It closed the day at $98.875, up $3.25 in Nasdaq trading, still an all-time high close, although the stock has split on five occasions since 1987.

The reaction surprised many Wall Street analysts because Windows 95 had already been widely seen as a guaranteed success. Microsoft’s shares have risen more than 60 percent since February in anticipation of the new software.

“It’s one more piece of good news in a euphoric market,” Terrence M. Quinn, an analyst with Furman Selz Inc., said of the announcement, referring to the recent rally in technology stocks.

He said Microsoft’s statement also reaffirmed its plan to ship Windows 95 on schedule on Aug. 24. Rumors that the product, which is already a year late, would suffer another delay have been roiling the market in recent weeks.

Microsoft still faces possible intervention from the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department, which is investigating whether the company’s dominance of the market for operating system software, which controls the inner workings of personal computers, should preclude it from using Windows 95 to promote a planned on-line service called The Microsoft Network.

The company has said it has no intention of removing the Microsoft Network code from Windows 95.

By moving up the release date of Office 95, Microsoft also relieved concerns that corporations, which account for the bulk of computer users, would be reluctant to adopt the new software, which offers only limited advantages unless it is used in collaboration with new applications that can exploit its advanced features.