Microsoft Reports Slight Q2 Earnings Beat

Microsoft Corporation MSFT reported second-quarter earnings slightly above Wall Street estimates Wednesday, fueled by growth in revenue from its commercial cloud business. 

Microsoft reported earnings per share of $1.10, beating by a penny the Street estimate. Sales came in at $32.47 billion, just under analysts' expected $32.49 billion. (Editor's note: The story originally said Microsoft reported sales of $32.5 billion.)

“Our strong commercial cloud results reflect our deep and growing partnerships with leading companies in every industry including retail, financial services, and healthcare,” said CEO Satya Nadella. "We are delivering differentiated value across the cloud and edge as we work to earn customer trust every day.”

Highlights

• Revenue of $32.5 billion was up 12 percent over the previous year quarter;
• Operating income was $10.3 billion and increased 18 percent year-over-year;
• Net income was $8.4 billion GAAP and $8.6 billion non-GAAP; and
• The company said commercial cloud revenue grew 48 percent year over year to $9 billion.
• Office commercial product and cloud services revenue were up 11 percent, driven by revenue growth of 34 percent in for the Office 365 Commercial product. Growth in consumer office products and cloud services was much smaller, at 1 percent. The company said it grew Office 365 Consumer subscribers to 33.3 million.

The company's LinkedIn unit saw revenue grow by 29 percent.

Microsoft shares traded down about 2 percent to $104.33 in after-hours trading. The stock rose 3.3 percent in the regular session.