Microsoft Q1 results top estimates as cloud business shines
Investing.com — Microsoft reported Tuesday fiscal first-quarter results that beat Wall Street estimates, as the tech giant's investment in artificial intelligence bolstered growth in its cloud business Azure.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) rose more than 4% in after-hours trade following the report.
The company announced earnings per share of $2.99 on revenue of $56.52B. Analysts polled by Investing.com anticipated EPS of $2.65 on revenue of $54.53B.
Revenue in productivity and business processes was up 13% to $18.6B and its intelligent cloud business, which includes cloud business Azure, grew 19% to $24.3B.
The company said Azure grew 29% in the quarter, compared with Wall Street estimates for 26%.
Microsoft's investments in AI — including the $10 billion bet on OpenAI, which created the popular AI tool ChatGPT — are expected to continue to drive growth.
«We believe that over 50% of the MSFT installed base will ultimately use the AI functionality for the enterprise/commercial landscape which represents a major monetization opportunity and we are now seeing this play out as we head into year-end,» Wedbush said in a note Tuesday following the quarterly results.
Revenue in personal computing was up 3% to $13.7 billion.
This was a «very strong performance [from Microsoft] given the macro headwinds as more enterprises move to the cloud while the company rapidly infuses AI across the entire tech stack,» Wedbush added.
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