Microsoft
reported revenue and profit above Wall Street expectations, as sales of
its hardware and cloud-computing services helped to offset a decline in
the company’s core Windows business.
Shares rose 3.1 percent to $44.70 in after-hours trading.
“The
company beat across the board,” said FBR Capital markets analyst Daniel
Ives. “The Street will cheer these results as it appears Microsoft is
back on the right track after a head-scratching performance last
quarter.”
Sales
of Windows to computer manufacturers to install on new PCs fell 19
percent in the quarter, reflecting a sharp dip from a year ago when
Windows got a brief boost from consumers rushing to buy new machines
after Microsoft stopped support for the 14-year-old XP operating system.
That
decline was offset by higher revenue from its Surface tablet, back-end
server software and cloud-related offerings such as its online Office
365 suite of applications.
The
company said its commercial cloud-related revenue for the quarter more
than doubled, and was now running at $6.3 billion a year. Amazon.com
said on Thursday its quarterly cloud revenue rose almost 50 percent to
$1.57 billion, suggesting a similar annual number.
Microsoft’s
overall revenue rose 6 percent to $21.7 billion, above Wall Street’s
average forecast of $21.1 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Taking
out the effects of the strong U.S. dollar on currency rates, Microsoft
said revenue would have risen 9 percent. Earnings per share declined to
61 cents per share from 68 cents in the year-ago quarter. Analysts had
expected 51 cents, on average.
Posted by : Gizmeon
No comments:
Post a Comment