Microsoft Q2 Profit Beats Street View Driven By Strong Cloud Growth

(RTTNews) - Software giant Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) Tuesday reported second-quarter results, with earnings beating Wall Street estimates, reflecting growth in cloud business.

Net income for the quarter was $16.43 billion or $2.20 per share, up from $18.77 billion or $2.48 per share in the same quarter last year.

Adjusted earnings for the quarter were $2.32 per share. Thirty-five analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $2.29 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.

Microsoft said its revenues grew 2% to $52.75 billion from $51.73 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $52.96 billion.

"We are focused on operational excellence as we continue to invest to drive growth. Microsoft Cloud revenue was $27.1 billion, up 22% (up 29% in constant currency) year-over-year as our commercial offerings continue to drive value for our customers," said Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft.

The revenue from intelligent cloud services increased to $21.5 billion in the quarter, up 18% from last year, driven by Azure and other cloud services revenue growth of 31%.

Revenue in Productivity and Business Processes increased 7% to $17.0 billion, with office commercial products and cloud services revenue up 7 percent driven by Office 365 commercial revenue growth of 11 percent, and LinkedIn revenue increase of 10%.

Revenues in More Personal Computing segment, which includes Windows operating system, slipped 19 percent to $14.2 billion.

MSFT closed Tuesday's trading at $242.04, down $0.54 or 0.22%, on the Nasdaq. The stock, however, gained $10.01 or 4.14% in the after-hours trading.