Microsoft maintained solid double-digit growth in its fiscal first quarter to September, thanks to demand for its cloud services as well as consumer products. Revenue rose 12 percent year-on-year to USD 37.2 billion, slowing only slightly from 13 percent growth in the previous quarter. Operating profit was up 25 percent to USD 15.9 billion, and net profit jumped 30 percent to USD 13.9 billion.
The Intelligent Cloud division was again the star performer, with revenue up 20 percent to USD 12.99 billion and operating rising 39 percent to USD 5.42 billion. Azure revenues alone were up 48 percent from the year-earlier period, driven by consumption-based services, while server products were down 1 percent amid weakness in transactional licensing, Microsoft said.
At Personal Computing, revenues rose 6 percent to USD 11.85 billion, and operating profit was up 18 percent to USD 4.75 billion. Growth was led by gaming (+22%) and Surface devices (+37%), while Windows Commercial revenue increased 13 percent thanks to demand for Microsoft 365. Windows OEM was down 22 percent in the Pro segment due to weaker business buying, while the non-Pro segment increased 31 percent on higher consumer PC demand for home working. Search revenues dropped 10 percent on the slower advertising market.
Finally, revenue was up 11 percent to USD 12.32 billion at the Productivity and Business Processes, led by growth at LinkedIn (+16%) and Office 365. Operating profit increased 19 percent to USD 5.71 billion. Office 365 commercial revenues was up 21 percent with a 15 percent increase in seats, and Office consumer revenue rose 13 percent, as the number of Microsoft 365 subscribers rose 27 percent year-on-year to 45.3 million.
Microsoft returned USD 9.5 billion to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends in the first quarter of fiscal year 2021, an increase of 21 percent compared to the same period a year ago.
