Tech: Microsoft misses slightly on revenue, but its all-important cloud business is stronger than ever (MSFT)

Microsoft is reporting earnings for the third quarter of its 2017 fiscal year — follow along.

Microsoft reported earnings today, beating Wall Street estimates on EPS, but coming in with a slight miss on revenue. Still, Microsoft was able to show strong growth in its crucial Office and Azure cloud computing segments.

Now, the stock is dipping between 1% and 3% in after-hours trading.

Microsoft reported:

• Earnings per share of $0.73 versus $0.70 expected.
• Revenue of $23.6 billion, versus $23.62 expected.

Investors were looking for signs of growth in Microsoft's cloud computing businesses, and they got it.

Revenue from its Productivity and Business Processes unit, which includes the fast-growing Office 365 cloud productivity suite, was up 22% from the same period in 2016, to $8 billion. There are now 26.2 million consumers subscribed to Office 365.

Plus, this was the first full quarter since Microsoft's $26.2 billion LinkedIn acquisition closed in December 2016, giving us our first glimpse into how they're playing together. LinkedIn operates under that same Productivity and Business Process unit, and contributed $975 million in revenue but an overall $386 million loss.

The Intelligent Cloud unit, which encompasses the Microsoft Azure cloud and Windows Server businesses, was up 11% over the same period in 2016 to $6.8 billion. Azure itself saw revenue grow 93% from the same period last year, but Microsoft doesn't disclose specific financials for that service.

More Personal Computing, which includes Windows, was down 7% year-over-year — a dip that Microsoft blames on its struggling phone business. The business of selling Windows to PC manufacturers was up 5%, and other Windows sales and services were up 6%. Surface revenue was down 26% year-over-year, while gaming revenue is up 4%.

Microsoft is reporting earnings for the third quarter of its 2017 fiscal year — follow along. Read Full Story