Technology

Microsoft Delivers on First Quarter Earnings

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has just released its fiscal 2016 first quarter earnings report. The software giant posted adjusted operating earnings of $0.67 per share and $21.7 billion in revenue. Thomson Reuters had estimates of $ $0.59 EPS and $21.03 billion in revenues. Its income from operations was $5.4 billion on an adjusted basis.

The GAAP numbers were listed as $0.57 in earnings per share on $20.4 billion in revenue. Net income was $4.6 billion in a GAAP reporting status. Microsoft showed that it returned $6.9 billion to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends during the quarter.

Microsoft said that it will provide its forward-looking guidance on its earnings conference call and webcast. Without guidance in the press release, investors should consider the earnings report as unfinished or incomplete. That being said, Microsoft shares just hit a new 52-week high after the report.

Revenue in Productivity and Business Processes declined 3% (up 4% in constant currency) to $6.3 billion. Revenue in Intelligent Cloud grew 8% (up 14% in constant currency) to $5.9 billion. Revenue in More Personal Computing declined 17% (down 13% in constant currency) to $9.4 billion. Below are the more impressive parts of the bullet points offered with each unit and combined into one area:

  • Office commercial products and cloud services revenue grew 5% in constant currency with Office 365 revenue growth of nearly 70% in constant currency and continued user growth across productivity offerings
  • Office 365 consumer subscribers increased to 18.2 million, with approximately 3 million subscribers added in the quarter
  • Server products and cloud services revenue grew 13% in constant currency, with revenue from premium products and services growing double-digits
  • Azure revenue and compute usage more than doubled year-over-year
  • Enterprise Mobility customers more than doubled year-over-year to over 20,000, and the installed base grew nearly 6x year-over-year
  • Search advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs grew 29% in constant currency with Bing US market share benefiting from Windows 10 usage
  • Xbox Live monthly active users grew 28% to 39 million

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said:

We are making strong progress across each of our three ambitions by delivering innovation people love. Customer excitement for new devices, Windows 10, Office 365 and Azure is increasing as we bring together the best Microsoft experiences to empower people to achieve more.

Microsoft CFO Amy Hood said:

We’re pleased with our operating results this quarter. With financial discipline and strong execution, we grew operating income by 11 percent in non-GAAP constant currency.

Microsoft COO Kevin Turner said:

We’re seeing great traction with businesses who want to bring Microsoft’s cloud, mobile device management technology and data analytics together to improve security and productivity resulting in almost 70 percent year-over-year growth in our commercial cloud run rate.

Microsoft shares closed up 1.75% at $48.03, and shares were initially up 5% at $50.50 in the after-hours trading session. Its 52-week trading range is $39.72 to $50.05 and it has a consensus analyst price target of $50.45.

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