Cloud Business Boosts Microsoft's Earnings

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 [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 26, 2018 16:45 ET (20:45 GMT)

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