Microsoft beats on top and bottom lines, driven by better-than-expected cloud growth

Microsoft on Wednesday reported an earnings and revenue beat for the fiscal first quarter, as the company’s Azure cloud infrastructure business grew faster than predicted. But the company anticipates slower growth in the current quarter.

Here’s how the company performed, compared with what Wall Street was expecting based on a survey of analysts by LSEG: 

• Earnings per share: $3.30 vs. $3.10 expected
• Revenue: $65.59 billion vs. $64.51 billion expected

Microsoft’s revenue grew 16% year over year in the quarter, which ended Sept. 30, according to a statement. Net income, at $24.67 billion, was up from $22.29 billion in the year-ago quarter.

With respect to guidance, Microsoft called for fiscal second-quarter revenue in the range of $68.1 billion to $69.1 billion. That implies 10.6% growth at the middle of the range. Analysts surveyed by LSEG were looking for $69.83 billion in revenue.

In August, Microsoft said it would revise the reporting of business segments to reflect its management approach. Mobility and security services, along with some Windows revenue, are now part of the productivity and business processes unit, which includes Office software.

Revenue from productivity and business processes reached $28.32 billion in the quarter. The number is up 12% and higher than the $27.90 billion consensus among analysts surveyed by StreetAccount. It’s 38% higher than the $20.45 billion midpoint of the forecast that management gave in July, because the actual total accounts for the changes.

Investors received a clearer picture of cloud computing consumption at Microsoft, because for the first time, the Azure and other cloud services revenue growth metric excludes mobility and security and Power BI data analytics sales. Azure growth for the quarter came in at 33%, with 12 points coming from artificial intelligence services. CNBC’s consensus for Azure growth was 32.8%, while StreetAccount’s was 29.4%.

“Demand continues to be higher than our available capacity,” Amy Hood, Microsoft’s finance chief, said on a conference call with analysts.

The full intelligent cloud segment including Azure, Windows Server and enterprise services generated $24.09 billion in revenue. That’s up 20% and slightly more than the $24.04 StreetAccount consensus.

On Tuesday, Google reported 35% annual growth in its rival cloud business to $11.35 billion. Amazon, which leads the cloud infrastructure market, is scheduled to report results Thursday.

Microsoft has shrunken the size of its segment called “more personal computing” through the reporting changes. In the fiscal first quarter it contributed $13.18 billion in revenue. That’s up about 17% and above the $12.56 billion StreetAccount consensus.

The company saw 2% growth in sales of devices and sales of Windows operating system licenses to device makers. Industry researcher Gartner estimated that quarterly PC shipments declined 1.3%.

During the quarter, Microsoft worked to help customers recover after a flawed update to CrowdStrike security software brought down Windows PCs globally. Microsoft said it would collaborate with BlackRock on an artificial intelligence infrastructure investment fund, with a goal of $30 billion in initial capital.

Microsoft’s AI investments continue to be a major focus for investors, as the company builds out its infrastructure and ramps up chip spending to handle heftier workloads. Microsoft is the main investor in ChatGPT creator OpenAI, which was valued at $157 billion in a financing round earlier this month.

As of Sept. 30, Microsoft had racked up more than $108 billion in finance leases that had not started, which UBS analysts have said might include third-party cloud spending to meet AI demand.

At the same time, Microsoft has been spending more cash on property and equipment. In the fiscal first quarter it grew 50% year over year to $14.92 billion. The consensus among analysts polled by Capital IQ was $14.58 billion.

As of Wednesday’s close, Microsoft was up about 15% for the year, while the Nasdaq gained around 24% during the same period.

Executives will discuss the results and issue guidance on a conference call with analysts starting at 5:30 p.m. ET.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

Correction: A prior version of this story had an incorrect date for the end of the quarter. It was Sept. 30.