By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 18th, 2024
Microsoft (MSFT) stock price has risen as the software giant released its fiscal Q3 results. Sales increased by 15%, powered by Microsoft cloud business.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) stock price has risen. On Wednesday, MSFT increased by 4.49% to trade at $177.43. In the pre-market today, Microsoft stock is 1.59% up. By all estimates, Microsoft is at the top of its game. Most of the cloud sales are thanks to an increase in Azure adoption.
Adjusted earnings per share were $1.40. This was greater than analysts’ estimates of $1.26. Revenue was $35.02 billion. Microsoft beat the estimated $33.66 billion.
The 10% rise in net income ($10.8 billion) shows a resurgence of the Redmond Washington software company. The revenue increase was by about 15%
Microsoft (MSFT) Stock Price Proves Great Performance of the Company
Microsoft has been able to redefine itself lately. Microsoft (MSFT) stock price is rising. Its results show that the software company is set to face the future on the same pedestal with other tech giants.
Speaking of tech giants, Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB) also made strong showings this week. This comes as unemployment in the United States is at an all-time high. Many industries are in steep losses at the moment. The tech industry seems to be still going strong.
Microsoft’s cloud usage saw a huge rise in the number of new users. this is due to the movement restrictions and a larger number of people who are working from home.
There was also an increase in purchases of windows licenses and Microsoft’s Surface Tablet.
Microsoft’s intelligent cloud business unit saw revenues of $12.28 billion. This is a 27% increase from last year. Estimates were $11.79 billion. The intelligent cloud business unit comprises of services including Azure, GitHub, and server software. SQL Server and Windows Server are a part of this unit as well.
There was a reduction in ad spends on LinkedIn. The personal computing business unit generated about $11 billion in revenue. Estimates were at $10.46 billion and it is a 2.9% increase.
Microsoft’s productivity and business process unit generated $11.74 billion in revenue. This is an increase of 14.7% and beat estimates of $11.53 billion.
The Office 365 results were a surprise. There was an increase of 39.6 million users. This is an annual increase of about 16%. It also comes at a time when companies such as Google and co. are introducing their productivity apps in the cloud at a freemium.
Microsoft’s Teams communication app has a new influx of subscribers. The number of users is now 77 million. This is up coming from 44 million in March alone.
Microsoft Provides Guidance for Next Quarter
Microsoft gave guidance for the next quarter. It expects revenue of $35.85 billion to $36.80 billion. This will be a 7.7% growth. The slowed expectations could be due to the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It will also be the slowest that the software giant has slowed since 2017. At this time, many pundits are seeing Microsoft as an evergreen stock. This has made it a fan-favorite. The great thing about these results is that Microsoft’s attempts to diversify are finally paying off.
We are starting to see Microsoft as a technology company. It is not a company that sells only the Windows operating system. There is more to Microsoft. This is what the earnings results say, or so it seems.