Microsoft results beat estimates on strong cloud growth

Reuters 

(Reuters) - Corp beat Wall Street estimates for revenue and profit in its first quarter on Wednesday, as more businesses signed up for its and Office 365

Much of Microsoft's recent growth has been fueled by its business, which has benefited from companies rushing to shift their workloads to the cloud to cut data storage and costs.

has a 18 percent share of the global cloud infrastructure market, making it the second-biggest provider of after Amazon.com Inc's Amazon Web Services, according to April estimates by research firm

However, the company's flagship recorded slower growth from the previous quarter. Revenue growth in the first quarter ended September was 76 percent, down from 89 percent growth in the fourth quarter.

Microsoft's focus on fast-growing and platforms is helping it beat slowing demand for personal computers that has hurt sales of its popular

Revenue from Microsoft's personal computing division, its largest by revenue, rose 14.6 percent to $10.75 billion. That figure beat the estimate of $10.13 billion. The unit includes software, Xbox gaming consoles, and Surface personal computers.

Revenue at Microsoft's productivity and processes unit, which includes Office 365, rose 18.6 percent to $9.77 billion, topping analysts' average expectation of $9.40 billion, according to Refinitiv data.

Overall, the Redmond, Washington-based company's revenue rose to $29.08 billion from $24.54 billion, above analysts' average estimate of $27.90 billion, according to Refinitiv data.

Net income rose to $8.82 billion, or $1.14 per share, in the quarter ended Sept. 30 from $6.58 billion, or 84 cents per share, a year earlier. (https://bit.ly/2OKcXAi)

Analysts had expected earnings of 96 cents per share.

(Reporting by in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Thu, October 25 2018. 01:53 IST