Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) unveiled its latest quarterly earnings results late on Wednesday, bringing in earnings and revenue that were well ahead of what Wall Street called for, playing a role in lifting MSFT stock after the bell today.
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The Redmond, Wash.-based tech giant said that for its third quarter of its fiscal 2019, earnings tallied up to $1.14 per share on an adjusted basis, topping the $1 per share that analysts called for, according to a survey conducted by Refinitiv. Revenue tallied up to $30.6 billion, marking a 14% gain when compared to its year-ago results.
Analysts saw Microsoft’s revenue as arriving at $29.84 billion, according to Refinitiv. The company’s Azure segment saw its revenue gain 73% year-over-year, while the company’s commercial cloud business (which includes Azure) experienced a revenue increase of 41% to $9.6 billion.
Moving its traditional productivity software to cloud applications has been a boon for the company, as its cloud-based Office 365 suite experienced a 30% increase in sales. Additionally, Microsoft’s LinkedIn professional networking site — which it acquired in 2016 — is growing faster than expected, with its revenue gaining 27% year-over-year.
For its fourth quarter of 2019, analysts are calling for Microsoft to post a revenue growth of 8.4% to $32.6 billion, while its earnings are slated to be around $1.18 per share, per Refinitiv.
MSFT stock had a good afternoon off the heels of the company’s strong quarter, increasing about 2.9% after the bell. Shares had been down about 0.3% during regular trading hours.
