Microsoft stock hit a new high after the company reported 50% growth of revenues from cloud computing and Azure 40% confidence – from the sales of the Xbox among a strong growth of other segments.
Shares of Microsoft (MSFT), an increase of 43.2% over the last 12 months, reached a new high for the last 52 weeks, with growth of 8.6% in after-hours trading on Tuesday.
Microsoft demonstrated the strength of all its units during the holiday quarter ended December 31. Particularly strong growth was sales of cloud computing Azure, new Xbox and the recovery of advertising sales at LinkedIn.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that the company benefits from long-term transition of companies to cloud-based digital technologies.
“What we have witnessed over the past year is the dawn of the second wave of digital transformation that gripped every company and every industry. Create your own digital opportunity to provide stability and growth of each organization,” said Nadella.
Microsoft reported an increase in earnings per share 2nd quarter 34% (compared value) to $2,03, that $0.39 better than the analyst estimate of $1,64. The amount of profit for the quarter amounted to $15.5 billion.
Overall quarterly revenue rose 17% to $43.1 billion, which also exceeds the analytical estimate of $40,18 billion Statistics quarterly revenue and profit of Microsoft for the last 2 years available here.
Over the last quarter, Microsoft returned to shareholders $10 billion in share repurchase and dividends, a 18% increase compared with the second quarter of the 2020 fiscal year.
Income units Microsoft
Sales of Microsoft is divided between three major divisions.
1. “Business unit Performance and business processes” (Productivity and Business Processes), including commercial and consumer Office products, cloud services, Microsoft 365 Consumer, Dynamics, and Dynamics 365, showed revenue growth of 13% to $13.4 billion.
The company’s management noted the recovery of demand for their services among the companies affected by the pandemic, as well as the growth of advertising revenues LinkedIn 23%, which is close to growth of 24% a year earlier.
2. The division of the “Intelligent cloud” (Intelligent Cloud), with consistently very high and rapidly-growing revenue, reported revenue growth of 23% to $14.6 billion, largely due to the growth of revenues from Azure to 50%.
“It was huge numbers, which will be another peak for the technology sector because the rise of cloud technology is just beginning,” said Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, commenting on the quarterly report of Microsoft.
3. The division of “More personal computing” (More Personal Computing), the second level of income, the company reported revenue growth of 14% to $15.1 billion
The growth was driven by increased sales of commercial products of Windows and cloud services for 10% and 40% growth in revenues from content and services Xbox. Thus, the gaming business is the Xbox for the first time in Microsoft’s history exceeded $5 billion in quarterly sales thanks to the subscriptions to and sales of new STB.
Monthly games Microsoft GamePass subscription at a price of $10 increased the number of users to 18 million compared with 15 million in September. The online service Xbox Live has reached more than 100 million active users per month.
Gross profit “commercial cloud”, which includes the following sets of software and services like Office and Azure, grew by 71% this quarter compared to 67% a year earlier.
This metric is considered by analysts and investors as an indicator of profitability of sales Microsoft big business. “Operating profit was excellent, even compared with the high expectations of the market,” said Norihiro’s the Fujita, chief investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.
Forward-looking statements Microsoft
In respect of the current quarter, Microsoft said it expects revenue Intelligent Cloud in the range of $14.7 billion – $14,95 billion, “More personal computing”- from $12.3 billion to $12.7 billion Revenue “Productivity and business processes” was projected at from $13,35 billion to $13.6 billion.
