Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) shares were down 2% following the company's fiscal second-quarter results which showed a miss on the top line and a slight beat on the bottom line. However, the company's guidance for the upcoming quarter came in below expectations which led to some selling in the after hours session. Azure revenue also fell short of expectations.
Over the last year, Microsoft shares are down 19% which is more than double the S&P 500's (NYSE: SPY) 9% loss over the past year. Like many of its peers, the company has embarked on a round of cost-cutting by laying off employees, reducing some perks and benefits for employees, streamlining divisions, and winding down some hardware projects. The plunge in its stock price has resulted in valuations becoming much more favorable as it has a forward P/E of 21.7 which is the lowest it's been in nearly a decade.
Inside the Numbers
In its fiscal second quarter, Microsoft reported $2.32 per share in earnings which was slightly above expectations of $2.29 per share in earnings. However, revenue also fell short of expectations at $52.8 billion vs $52.9 billion. The company also took a $1.2 billion charge in its cost-cutting efforts. Overall, earnings were down about 11% compared to last year's fiscal second quarter, while revenue was up 2%.
In its upcoming quarter, the company is forecasting revenue between $50.5 billion and $51.5 billion which equates to 3% revenue growth. This was below expectations of $52.4 billion. The primary factor in its soft guidance is that it sees continued weakness in PC sales. It also noted a slowdown in Azure revenue in the December quarter in addition to slower growth in Microsoft 365 products.
Microsoft's Intelligent Cloud revenue came in at $21.51 billion, an 18% increase, which was above expectations of $21.4 billion. Azure revenue was up 31% which was a slowdown from 35% in the last quarter. CEO Microsoft Satya Nadella said that customers are saving money by optimizing workloads.
For the next quarter, the company is projecting Azure growth to slow further which is a departure from its previous guidance of mid-30% growth. This resulted in declines for other cloud stocks like Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN).