Cloud Business Boosts Microsoft's Earnings
April 26 2018 - 5:00PM
Dow Jones News
By Jay Greene
Microsoft Corp. extended its streak of wins in the latest
quarter as the software giant moves into an era where its venerable
Windows franchise plays a supporting role to its burgeoning
cloud-computing operations.
The cloud business, called Azure, jumped 93% in the fiscal third
quarter, Microsoft reported Thursday. The business has never grown
slower than 90% since the company began reporting the metric in
October 2015. The other big piece of the company's cloud
operations, the commercial version of its Office 365
online-productivity service, grew 42%.
Microsoft doesn't disclose revenue for either business, but in
the preceding second quarter it said Azure jumped 98% and
commercial Office 365 grew 41%.
The surging cloud business led Microsoft to post a profit
increase of 35% to $7.42 billion, or 95 cents a share. Revenue rose
16% to $26.82 billion.
Microsoft no longer reports adjusted figures, reflecting
accounting changes it adopted at the start of the fiscal year. The
year-ago figure reflects that change.
Analysts surveyed by S&P Global Market Intelligence expected
Microsoft to report per-share earnings of 85 cents on revenue of
$25.78 billion.
Microsoft's stock fell 1.2% in immediate after-hours trading,
after finishing the day at $94.27, up 2.1%.
Write to Jay Greene at Jay.Greene@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 26, 2018 16:45 ET (20:45 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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