'Big Tech's First Mover' MS Beats Expectations... Cloud Revenue Jumps Double Digits

Sales Growth Hits Lowest Since 2016
Cloud Sector Sees 18% Revenue Increase

[Asia Economy New York=Special Correspondent Joselgina] Microsoft (MS), the first among US big tech companies to announce earnings, recorded the lowest quarterly revenue growth in over six years on the 24th (local time) amid recession concerns. However, with double-digit growth in cloud segment revenue and earnings per share exceeding expectations, it is being evaluated as a relatively strong performance.

[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

MS announced after the New York Stock Exchange closed that its Q4 revenue last year increased by 2% year-on-year to $52.75 billion. This is the slowest growth since Q2 2016. Net income decreased by 12% to $16.43 billion. This slightly missed the FactSet estimates of $52.99 billion in revenue and $17.51 billion in net income.

However, earnings per share were $2.32, surpassing the market estimate of $2.29. Wall Street particularly noted that growth in the cloud segment exceeded investor expectations. Cloud segment revenue was $21.51 billion, an 18% increase year-on-year. This also exceeded the consensus estimate of $21.44 billion.

Amy Hood, Microsoft Chief Financial Officer (CFO), stated in a release, "We continue to invest to drive growth while focusing on improving operational efficiency." Costs related to the previously announced 10,000 job cuts were recorded at $1.2 billion.

MS will start its conference call at 5:30 PM Eastern Time today. In current after-hours trading, MS shares are moving up about 4%. MS closed the regular session down 0.22% compared to the previous day.