Microsoft Profit, Sales Beat as Cloud Demand Persists
- Quarterly revenue tops estimates by more than $1 billion
- Shares jump after report, exceeding earlier all-time high
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Microsoft Corp.’s quarterly sales beat analysts’ projections by more than $1 billion, fueled by persistent demand from corporate customers seeking to shift computing tasks to cloud-based systems.
Revenue in the period ended Dec. 31 rose 14% to $36.9 billion, marking the software maker’s 10th straight quarter of double-digit sales growth. Analysts on average had predicted $35.7 billion. Fiscal second-quarter profit was $11.6 billion, or $1.51 a share, Microsoft said Wednesday in a statement. That compared with the $1.32 per-share estimate of analysts polled by Bloomberg. Shares rose 4% in late trading.