Microsoft Earnings Deliver and the Cash Keeps Flowing

Score one for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). Microsoft earnings were reported last night, and Nadella & Co. beat analyst estimates for both revenues and earnings per share, bucking a trend of recent misses in the tech sector. The quick numbers: In the fiscal third quarter, Microsoft reported earnings of 61 cents per share of MSFT stock, down about 10% from the 68 cents per share earned last year, but still better than analyst estimates. Wall Street had expected a dismal 51 cents. On the revenue front, Microsoft brought in $21.71 billion, beating estimates of $21.06 billion. That’s up a little over 6% from the year-ago quarter.

The figure the Street was watching the closest was commercial revenues, as this gives the best indication as to the success of CEO Satya Nadella’s turnaround plan for the company. The commercial segment accounts for about 60% of Microsoft’s total revenues. Nadella has been retooling MSFT as a cloud services provider to business, but the second quarter’s commercial sales disappointed, causing Microsoft to suffer its worst drop in 18 months. There would be no repeat in the third quarter. Commercial sales came in better than expected, up 5% (7% on a constant currency basis). And within the segment, commercial cloud revenue, which includes Office 365 and cloud computing platform Azure, was the standout with revenue growth of 106% (111% on a constant currency basis). Consumers are embracing Office 365 as well; the number of consumer subscribers jumped 35%.

Source: InvestorPlace

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