Microsoft reported stronger results for its fiscal fourth quarter to end June, pulled up by innovation across cloud platforms, CEO Satya Nadella said. Revenues rose to USD 23.32 billion from 20.64 billion the year(+13%) before, while the operating profit lifted to USD 5.33 billion from 3.08 billion (+73%) and the net profit went higher to USD 6.51 billion from 3.12 (+109%), with diluted earnings per share reaching USD 0.83 from 0.39 (+112%). LinkedIn contributed USD 1.1 billion to revenue in the quarter. The company said it returned USD 4.6 billion to shareholders in the form of share buy-backs and dividends.
For the full year, revenues advanced to USD 89.95 billion from 85.32 billion(+5%), operating profit lifted to USD 22.32 from 20.18 billion (+11%) and the net profit went up to USD 21.2 billion from 16.79 (+26%), with diluted EPS higher at USD 2.71 from 2.10 (+29%).
Revenue at Intelligent Cloud for Q4 came in at the high end of expectations, rising 11 percent to USD 7.4 billion, with server products and cloud services revenue up 15 percent, driven by Azure revenue growth of 97 percent.
At Personal Computing, revenue slipped 2 percent to USD 8.8 billion, within guidance. Sales were depressed by lower phone revenue, offsetting growth in Windows (+1%), search (+10%) and gaming (+3%).
Revenue in Productivity and Business Process, which includes Linkin, lifted 21 percent to USD 8.4 billion, also within the company’s forecast. Sales were boosted by office commercial products and cloud services revenue (+5%), with Office 365 commercial revenue jumping 43 percent. Office consumer products and cloud services revenue advanced 13 percent, with Office 365 consumer subscribers going higher to 27.0.
