Microsoft Q1 Earnings Top Expectations, Shares Surge

Shares of Microsoft Corporation MSFT jumped over 6 percent in after-hours trading after the company reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its fiscal first quarter. The Redmond, Washington-based company reported a quarterly profit of $4.62 billion, or $0.57 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $4.54 billion, or $0.54 per share. On an adjusted basis, the company's earnings rose to $0.67 per share from $0.65 per share. Its revenue slipped 12 percent to $20.38 billion in the latest quarter, while revenue on an adjusted basis declined to $21.7 billion. Analysts were estimating earnings of $0.59 per share on revenue of $21.03 billion. The average estimate among 244 Estimize users was for earnings of $0.59 per share and revenue of $21.44 billion. Its gross margin expanded to 64.6 percent from 64.3 percent. The company's revenue in "More Personal Computing" segment declined 17 percent to $9.38 billion, while revenue in the "Intelligent Cloud" segment gained 7.6 percent to $5.89 billion. Its revenue in the "Productivity and Business Processes" segment declined 2.8 percent to $6.31 billion. "We are making strong progress across each of our three ambitions by delivering innovation people love," said Satya Nadella, chief executive officer at Microsoft. "Customer excitement for new devices, Windows 10, Office 365 and Azure is increasing as we bring together the best Microsoft experiences to empower people to achieve more." Microsoft shares gained 6.70 percent to $51.25 in the after-hours trading session.