Microsoft quarterly results beat as cloud revenue soars

(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) on Thursday reported quarterly profit and revenue that beat analysts’ estimates, as more businesses signed up for its Azure cloud computing services and Office 365 productivity suite.

FILE PHOTO: An advertisement is played on a set of large screens at the Microsoft office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., on January 25, 2017. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo

The company’s flagship cloud product recorded revenue growth of 89 percent in the fourth quarter ended June 30.

Much of Microsoft’s recent growth has been fueled by its cloud computing business, which has benefited from companies rushing to shift their workloads to the cloud to cut data storage and software costs.

Azure has a 16 percent share of the global cloud infrastructure market, making it the second-biggest provider of cloud services after Amazon.com Inc’s (AMZN.O) Amazon Web Services, according to April estimates by research firm Canalys.

Revenue at Microsoft’s productivity and business processes unit, which includes Office 365, rose 13.1 percent to $9.67 billion, topping analysts’ average expectation of $9.65 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Overall, the Redmond, Washington-based software company’s revenue rose 17.5 percent to $30.09 billion, above expectations of $29.21 billion.

Net income rose to $8.87 billion, or $1.14 per share, in the fourth quarter ended June 30 from $8.07 billion, or $1.03 per share, a year earlier. bit.ly/2uOF9W1

Excluding certain items, Microsoft earned $1.13 per share, while analysts had expected earnings of $1.08 per share.

Reporting by Vibhuti Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva

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