The net profit of the world's largest manufacturer of software – Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT), in July-September amounted to $ 4.69 billion, or 60 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $ 4.902 billion, or 61 cents per share, during the same period of the previous year, according to the company’s press release.
Adjusted earnings, which does not account for restructuring costs, amounted to 76 cents per share versus 70 cents a year earlier. Analysts polled by FactSet, on average, had forecast the index at the level of 58 cents per share.
The company's revenue rose 0.4%, to $20.453 billion from $20.379 billion.
Analysts polled by FactSet, expected on average adjusted earnings at 68 cents per share on revenue of $21.7 billion.
During the last quarter, Microsoft returned $6.6 billion to shareholders in the form of dividends and repurchase of shares, according to reports. The dividend amount was increased by 8%, to $0.39 per share.
The revenue of the Intelligent Cloud division, which includes the Azure cloud service and the business for the production of software for servers, grew in July-September by 8%, to $ 6.4 billion. The sales of Azure service have soared by 116%.
The revenue of Productivity and Business Processes division, which, in particular, produces the Office suite of applications, increased by 6%, to $ 6.7 billion. The sales of products and services for corporate clients increased by 5%, for private users – by 8%, and the number of Office 365 subscribers grew to 24 million people.
Meanwhile, More Personal Computing division, which includes the Windows, Xbox game consoles and Surface tablets, reduced sales by 2% to $ 9.3 billion. The phone sales collapsed by 72%, revenue from games fell 5%.
In the second quarter (October-December), Microsoft plans to close a deal to buy LinkedIn Corp., as well as to complete the sale of traditional mobile phones unit (not smartphones).
The company predicts that in the current quarter, the Intelligent Cloud revenue will amount to $6.55-6.75 billion, Productivity and Business Processes - to $7.1 billion, and More Personal Computing - $11.2-11.6 billion.
Microsoft shares rose 5.9% on Thursday, and 11% in the last quarter.