Microsoft sales grow on cloud strength, shares dip on heightened valuation

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found on the following page: Microsoft sales grow on cloud strength, shares dip on heightened valuation

Microsoft Corp met analysts' quarterly sales expectations and beat profit estimates, but its shares fell slightly as investors hoped for an even stronger performance after a year-long rally to a massive market valuation.

The Redmond, Washington company has become one of the world's most valuable companies, worth close to $2 trillion after its stock jumped 50% over the past year, by entering the booming market for cloud computing.

Microsoft has remained a household name during the pandemic through its Teams collaboration software. Sales have even boomed for its Windows operating system for PCs, which had waned for decades as smartphone have proliferated.

Microsoft's Azure cloud service is closing ground on market-share leader Amazon Web Services, and it is doubling down on productivity software used by businesses worldwide.

Revenue and adjusted earnings per share for the third quarter ended March 31 were $41.7 billion and $1.95 per share, above analysts' estimates of $41.03 billion and $1.78 per share, according to data from Refinitiv.

Shares initially fell as much as 3.2% after the results were released, but they pared losses to 1.7%, at $257.50, after Microsoft executives gave a better-than-expected forecast during a conference call with investors.

"One-off tax and currency advantages have boosted Microsoft's third-quarter numbers, and as a result the market isn't being quite as welcoming of expectation-beating numbers as you might expect," said Nicholas Hyett, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

"That is the danger of trading on the kind of valuation Microsoft enjoys, 32.8 times next year's earnings. Disappoint even a little and the market will be unforgiving."

Sales for what Microsoft calls its "commercial cloud" - which contains server infrastructure such as Azure along with cloud-based versions of its Office software - was up 33% at $17.7 billion. Sales for Dynamics 365, which competes directly with Salesforce.com, rose 45% and the business version of Office 365 added 15% more users.

"That's the fourth consecutive quarter of 15% seat growth on a very large base," Microsoft CFO Amy Hood said of the Office 365 results for commercial customers.

Microsoft has continued to double down on cloud-base software and said earlier this month it would buy AI software firm Nuance Communications Inc for $16 billion, excluding net debt, to bolster its healthcare business.

Microsoft said Azure, its closely watched cloud computing business that competes with Amazon.com Inc's Amazon Web Services and Alphabet Inc's Google Cloud, grew 50% in the quarter, or 46% when adjusted for currency variations. This is down from a currency-adjusted 48% the quarter before but in line with analysts' expectations of 46.3% growth, according to data from Visible Alpha.

Overall sales at Microsoft's "intelligent cloud" unit that contains Azure were $15.1 billion, above analysts' estimates of $14.92 billion, according to Refinitiv data.

Microsoft Teams has 145 million daily users, up from 115 million in October, Microsoft said. Sales for Microsoft's productivity software unit, which includes Office and Teams, were $13.6 billion, compared with estimates of $13.49 billion, according to Refinitiv.

Sales for its LinkedIn social network were up 23% on a currency adjusted basis, slightly above Visible Alpha estimates of 21.9%, as revenue continued to recover from a sharp decline in job listings and hiring at the onset of the pandemic.

Microsoft's personal computing unit, which contains its Windows operating system and Xbox gaming console, had $13.0 billion in sales, compared with analysts' expectations of $12.57 billion, according to Refinitiv data. Sales of Windows to PC makers were up 10%, compared to a 1% rise the quarter earlier.

On a call with investors, Microsoft forecast fiscal fourth-quarter productivity segment revenue with a midpoint of $13.93 billion, above Refinitiv estimates of $13.57 billion. Its sales forecasts for its intelligent cloud and personal computing businesses had midpoints of $16.32 billion and $13.80 billion, respectively, above estimates of $16.0 billion and $13.26 billion, according to Refinitiv data.

The team at Platform Executive hope you have enjoyed this news article. Automatic translation from English to a growing list of languages via Google AI Cloud Translation. Initial reporting via our official content partners at Thomson Reuters. Reporting by Akanksha Rana and Stephen Nellis. Editing by Arun Koyyur and Richard Chang.

You can stay on top of all the latest developments across the platform economy, find solutions to your key challenges and gain access to our problem-solving toolkit, proprietary databases and content sets by becoming a premium member of our growing community. For a limited time, subscription plans start from just $7 per month.

This news article was published by Platform Executive, the home of the platform economy.

If you enjoy the content then please post a link on your website, or post on social media to help us get the word out.

Microsoft sales grow on cloud strength, shares dip on heightened valuation posted first on https://www.platformexecutive.com/