Microsoft
However, shares rallied as the company issued guidance that was above expectations. Overall, Microsoft shares are down 23% from their all-time high in November of last year. The stock does seem to have found support since mid-May as it's been range-bound between $250 and $270. Its strong gains also contributed to the outperformance and other enterprise software stocks in the ensuing session.
Inside the Numbers
In its fiscal Q4, Microsoft reported $2.23 in earnings per share which fell short of expectations of $2.29 per share and were flat compared to last year. Revenue came in at $51.87 billion vs expectations of $52.44 billion. This was a 12% increase from last year and marks its slowest growth since 2020 and the first time missing earnings expectations since 2016.
Microsoft turned in the slowest revenue growth since 2020, at 12% year over year in the quarter, which ended on June 30, according to a statement. The company's earnings per share fell short of consensus for the first time since 2016, with net income rising 2% to $16.74 billion.
Next quarter, it sees about 10% growth due to weak PC sales and slower growth in cloud spending. For the full year, the company reiterated its forecast from last quarter which was considered a positive given the weakness in the overall economy and various tech categories.
Intelligent Cloud, which includes Azure, saw a 20% increase in revenue to $20.9 billion, slightly below estimates of $21.1 billion. Azure revenue was up 40%, a decrease from last year's 46% growth and below estimates of 43% growth. However, the company noted some wins in terms of securing deals above $100 million and $1 billion.
Productivity and Business Processes were up 13% to $16.60 billion in revenue. More Personal Computing segment, which includes Windows, Xbox, and Bing, saw a 2% increase in revenue to $14.4 billion due to weakness in ad spending and PC sales.
