Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) continued the trend of tech giants reporting strong earnings. It topped expectations across the board in terms of earnings, revenue, and guidance with its cloud division posting extraordinary growth. The company's business spiked higher during the pandemic and so far there are no signs of momentum slowing.
Inside the Numbers
In its fiscal Q4, Microsoft reported earnings per share of $2.17 which topped expectations of $1.92 per share. It was also a 41% increase from last year's fiscal Q4. Similarly, revenue handily beat at $46.15 billion vs. $44.24 billion which was a 19% increase from last year.
In terms of its various business units, Intelligent Cloud (which includes Azure), generated $17.4 billion in revenue, a 30% increase and above expectations of $16.3 billion. Azure revenue was up 51% above expectations of 45%. This was also a slight acceleration from last quarter's 50% growth.
Productivity and Business Processes (which includes MS Office) revenue was up 25% to $14.7 billion and above expectations of $13.9 billion. The number of Office 365 subs increased by 17%, and the company expects revenue per user to increase. Microsoft Teams now has 250 million active monthly users.
More Personal Computing (which includes Windows) contributed $14.1 billion, a 9% increase. However, this segment was likely adversely affected by supply challenges which led to decreased PC production. Revenue for Windows licenses declined by 3%. Surface sales declined by 20% also due to supply issues rather than lack of demand. However, recent commentary from chip companies is indicating that this issue is marginally improving.
The company's guidance was also above expectations. It's forecasting revenue between $14.5 billion and $14.75 billion in its next quarter, while analysts were projecting $14.1 billion for its Productivity and Business Processes segment. For Intelligent Cloud, the company expects $16.4 billion to $16.65 billion in revenue, above $15.7 billion consensus forecast.
Stock Price Outlook
The results from companies like Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Microsoft are remarkable. For a long time, companies' growth slowed as they got bigger. This concept is being proven wrong by today's mega-cap tech giants as they are growing faster than the average stock in the market. Additionally, they remain attractive based on valuation especially as they continue to plow money into share buybacks.