The net profit of the world's largest manufacturer of software - Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) was $ 3.12 billion, or 39 cents per share in the fourth quarter ended June 30, compared with a net loss of $ 3.2 billion, or 40 cents per share, during the same period of the previous year.
As noted in a press release, a loss in the fourth quarter last year was caused by the write-off of $ 8.4 billion in connection with the acquisition of Nokia.
Microsoft earnings excluding write-downs and restructuring costs amounted to 69 cents per share versus 62 cents a year earlier. Analysts polled by FactSet, on average, had forecast the index at the level of 58 cents per share.
Microsoft profit exceeded market forecasts, but revenue for the past financial year declined for the first time since 2009.
The company's revenue in the last quarter fell 7.1% to $ 20.61 billion, while the forecast of experts amounted to $ 22.1 billion.
At the end of last financial year, Microsoft’s net profit increased by 38% to $ 16.8 billion, or $ 2.10 per share, compared with $ 12.19 billion, or $ 1.48 per share, a year earlier. Annual revenue fell to $ 85.32 billion from $ 93.58 billion.
Over the past quarter, the company returned $ 6.4 billion to shareholders in the form of dividends and repurchase of shares.
The revenue of the Intelligent Cloud division ("smart" cloud), which includes the Azure cloud service, and the business of software release for servers, has increased in the last quarter by 7%, to $ 6.7 billion. Azure service sales soared by 102%.
The Productivity and Business Processes unit, which, in particular, produces Office suite of applications, increased revenues by 5% to $ 7 billion, but reduced the profit by almost 7%. Sales of products and Office services for corporate clients increased by 5% and for private users by 19%, and the number of Office subscribers have grown to 23.1 million people.
More Personal Computing unit, including Windows, and Xbox gaming consoles and Surface tablets, reduced revenues by 4%, to $ 8.9 billion. Surface products sales rose 9% due to the release of Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book, while revenue from the sale of phones fell 70%. The number of Xbox Live active users for the past year increased by a third, to 49 million people.
Windows 10 operating system, which was released last summer, still shows a steady increase in the number of users. Windows 10 is already installed on more than 350 million units - a record figure in the company's history. Members are free to update the current OS to Windows 10 until July 29.