Microsoft sees steady cloud growth after record April-June quarter profit

 

By Akanksha Rana and Julia Love

(Reuters) -Microsoft Corp posted its most profitable quarter on Tuesday, beating Wall Street expectations for revenue and earnings, as PC sales declines stemming from a global chip shortage were more than made up for by a boom in cloud services.

Shares ticked up 0.7% after Microsoft projected that growth in its Azure cloud computing business will continue apace following a quarter in which sales climbed 51%.

Overall revenue rose 21% to $46.2 billion, beating analysts' consensus by about $2 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

The pandemic-driven shift to remote work has boosted consumer appetite for cloud-based computing, helping companies including Microsoft, Amazon.com Inc's cloud unit and Alphabet Inc's Google Cloud.

Microsoft's "guidance was off-the-charts strong and it shows the cloud growth story in Redmond is hitting its next gear," said Daniel Ives of Wedbush Securities.

Revenue in Microsoft's "Intelligent Cloud" segment rose 30% to $17.4 billion, with growth in Azure revenues handily surpassing the 43.1% jump projected by analysts, according to consensus data from Visible Alpha.

Microsoft's market capitalization stands at nearly $2.2 trillion, after climbing nearly 30% so far this year, compared with 18% for the overall S&P 500 Index, according to Refinitiv Eikon data based on Monday's closing price.

It has surpassed the price-to-earnings ratios of tech titans Apple Inc and Google, fueling concerns among some analysts that it may be overvalued.

"Microsoft's stock has made a big run since the beginning of the pandemic, and is trading at rich multiples," said Haris Anwar, senior analyst at Investing.com. "After such a powerful rally, its shares may take a breather, especially when investors are still unclear how the demand scenario will evolve in the post-pandemic environment."

Revenue from personal computing, which includes Windows software and Xbox gaming consoles, rose 9% to $14.1 billion.

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