Microsoft posted a fiscal fourth-quarter 2023 earnings beat but its stock fell on a modest decline in the growth of its cloud platform Azure from the previous quarter.
For 4Q, which ended June 30, 2023, the company reported a 21% jump in diluted earnings per share (EPS) to $2.69. Revenue increased by 8% to $56.2 billion.
Analysts, on average, had forecast EPS of $2.54 on revenue of $55.36 billion, per Zacks Consensus Estimate.
Intelligence cloud revenue was $24 billion above the expected $23.8 billion, with its Azure cloud platform seeing revenue grow 26% year-over-year, down 1% from fiscal 3Q 2023.
Personal computing revenue, however, decreased by 4% to $13.9 billion, led by a 20% decline in device sales and a 12% drop in Windows OEM revenue.
“We delivered a solid close to the fiscal year driven by Microsoft Cloud quarterly revenue of $30.3 billion, up 21% (up 23% in constant currency) year-over-year,” Microsoft CFO Amy Hood said in a statement.
The company’s CEO Satya Nadell added: “We remain focused on leading the new AI platform shift, helping customers use the Microsoft Cloud to get the most value out of their digital spend, and driving operating leverage.”
Microsoft also topped expectations for fiscal 2023, reporting adjusted EPS of $9.81 on revenue of $211.9 billion.
The Street had expected EPS of $9.65 on revenue of $211.1 billion.
Microsoft shares fell 1.1% to US$347 following the release of its earnings.
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