Microsoft’s Shares Jump 5% On Strong Earnings

Microsoft shares (MSFT) closed down.75% at $57.10, but the impressive beat caused the stock to jump 5% in after hours trading.

The strong performance of Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud unit – it handles the products Nadella once oversaw – helped out in the first quarter. “And we are well-positioned to serve them”, he said. “I’m proud of the continued progress”. There are also reports which claim that Microsoft will launch a Surface All-in-One type device at the event. Analysts were expecting $21.71 billion.

As ever, Microsoft also offered alternative figures that book Windows 10 revenue up front instead of amortized over several years. Net income was $6.0 billion.

New Microsoft Surface Pro 4s sit on display at a media event for new Microsoft products on October 6, 2015 in New York City. The same period from past year had $0.67 in EPS on $21.66 billion in revenue. Paid seats for Dynamics doubled year-on-year, with HP Inc as a big customer win for the firm. Both commercial and consumer Office revenue increased, by 5 and 8 percent respectively.

Microsoft built its fortune on packaged software but has made a priority of offering applications as services hosted online and accessible from a broad array of internet-linked devices. Finally, More Personal Computing revenue fell 2% from a year ago (1% minus forex) to $9.3 billion, but still easily beat its forecasted range of $8.7 to $9.0 billion. OEM licensing revenue was flat as people continue to buy fewer PCs.

Gaming revenue dropped 5%; higher Xbox subscription revenue did not offset lower console sales this time.

This may not be possible as the Intel Kaby Lake processors are not expected to arrive before end of this year. The device is also being hyped by Microsoft as the ultimate laptop, reports the Christian Today. The company is expected to announce several new devices at the event including Microsoft Surface Pro 5.

“HoloLens is opening up new opportunities”, he said.

Last year’s Surface Book has one glaring issue which involves its docking mechanism: it uses a unique Muscle Wire Lock mechanism which requires electricity to work.

The one bright spot was search, with revenues up 9 per cent.

Microsoft Corp reported adjusted revenue and profit above estimates on Thursday, driven by growing demand for its cloud products and services.

Microsoft has invested heavily to reposition itself as an industry leader in cloud services, rivaling businesses like Amazon.