Microsoft (MSFT) Q4 earnings report 2024

Microsoft shares fell as a lot as 7% in prolonged buying and selling on Tuesday as buyers regarded previous better-than-expected earnings and income and centered as an alternative on disappointing cloud outcomes. However executives supplied a dose of optimism after they predicted a cloud development speed-up within the first half of 2025.

Here is how the corporate did, in contrast with the LSEG consensus:

• Earnings per share: $2.95 vs. $2.93 anticipated
• Income: $64.73 billion vs. $64.39 billion anticipated

Microsoft’s income elevated 15% 12 months over 12 months within the fiscal fourth quarter, which ended on June 30, based on a press release. Web earnings, at $22.04 billion, was up from $20.08 billion, or $2.69 per share, within the year-ago quarter.

With respect to steerage, Microsoft referred to as for fiscal first-quarter income between $63.8 billion and $64.8 billion, implying 13.8% development on the center of the vary. Analysts polled by LSEG had been in search of $65.24 billion in income. The forecast included $15.25 billion in working bills on the center of the vary, beneath the StreetAccount consensus of $16.10 billion.

The corporate’s prime phase, Clever Cloud, generated $28.52 billion in income. It consists of the Azure public cloud, Home windows Server, Nuance and GitHub. The whole was up about 19% and beneath the $28.68 billion consensus amongst analysts surveyed by StreetAccount. GitHub’s income is now at an annual run price exceeding $2 billion, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated on a convention name with analysts.

Income from Azure and different cloud providers grew 29% through the quarter. Analysts polled by CNBC and StreetAccount had anticipated 31% development. Microsoft’s Azure quantity hadn’t fallen in need of consensus since 2022. The tech large does not disclose income from the class in {dollars}.

Final week, Google guardian Alphabet stated income from its cloud enterprise, encompassing Workspace productiveness software program and Google Cloud Platform infrastructure, went up by about 29%. 

Microsoft’s cloud unit is of specific significance to Wall Road, as the corporate is battling with Amazon Net Companies and Google for synthetic intelligence workloads. All three firms are investing closely to spice up AI capabilities and to try to lure startups and large firms as generative AI fashions quickly advance. For Amazon, AWS has been a important supply of revenue for a decade.

Of the 29% development for Azure and different cloud providers, 8 share factors got here from AI providers, Microsoft stated.

“Our share positive aspects accelerated this 12 months pushed by AI,” Nadella stated. However demand for Azure AI providers remained larger than accessible capability, stated Amy Hood, Microsoft’s finance chief. The corporate pointed to that pattern in April. She stated Azure development in June was barely decrease than anticipated throughout some components of Europe.

Microsoft sees fiscal first-quarter Azure income development between 28% and 29% at fixed forex within the fiscal second quarter, with quicker development within the second half of the fiscal 12 months, Hood stated. Analysts polled by StreetAccount had been in search of fiscal second-quarter income development of 30.6% for Azure.

The Productiveness and Enterprise Processes unit that features Workplace software program and LinkedIn produced $20.32 billion in income. That is up 11% and greater than the $20.13 billion StreetAccount consensus.

Microsoft’s Extra Private Computing unit, with the Home windows working system, gaming, units and search promoting, contributed $15.90 billion in income. That final result is up 14% and better than the StreetAccount consensus of $15.49 billion.

The outcomes benefited from a solidifying PC market. Gross sales of Home windows licenses to gadget makers had been up 4%. Know-how trade researcher Gartner estimated that PC shipments through the fiscal fourth quarter elevated 1.9%, up from 0.9% development within the prior quarter.

In gaming, Microsoft now has over 500 million month-to-month energetic customers, together with numerous consoles, PCs and cell units following the Activision Blizzard acquisition that closed in October, Nadella stated.

Through the fiscal fourth quarter, Microsoft began promoting Floor PCs with AI options that may run sure fashions domestically with out the necessity for an web connection. Dell, HP and different gadget makers additionally touted their very own so-called Copilot+ PCs. Nadella stated at a press briefing in Might that “we’re bringing actual pleasure and a way of marvel again to creation on the PC.”

Excluding the after-hours transfer, Microsoft inventory is up 12% 12 months up to now, whereas the S&P 500 gained 13% over the identical interval.