Microsoft beat forecasts for revenue and net income this year as favorable winds continued in its LinkedIn platform, business applications, and the growing cloud-computing segment.
Refinitiv, reveals that revenue, for the quarter ending September 30, rose 221TP2Q to $45.3 million, well above estimates of $44 billion, according to
Net income increased 401TP2Q, to $20.5 million, higher than forecasts of $15.7 million. That number was also helped by a one-time tax benefit of $3.3 million.
These results reflect how Microsoft's cloud offerings are significantly contributing to companies of various sizes "improving the productivity and affordability of their products and services by generating technology intensity," according to, Satya Nadella, the tech company's CEO.
Chief Financial Officer, Amy Hood, said that Microsoft Cloud generated revenue of $20.7 million, which is $36% more than last year.
Azure's growth rate is the best direct measure of competition with rivals like AWS and Google Cloud, since Microsoft does not derive revenue from the cloud-computing unit.
Gross margins were 70%, down from 71% the previous year, although operating income rose 27% to $20.2 million.
Thirteen of Microsoft's 14 product categories had higher revenue than a year ago, led by a 61% gain in LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, a 50% expansion in Azure, its cloud computing arm, and a 48% jump in Dynamics 365, the enterprise applications division.
According to data from Refinitiv, Microsoft said that revenue from the "Intelligent Cloud" segment grew 31% to 17 billion. Analysts had expected a figure of 16.58 million,
Azure revenue growth came in at 48%, beating analysts' estimates of 47.5%, according to Visible Alpha.
The laggard was Microsoft's consumer hardware division, Surface, whose revenue fell 17%, possibly due to the worldwide chip shortage.
Meanwhile, Microsoft 365 now has 54.1 million subscribers, up from 45.3 million the previous year.
Microsoft stock is up more than 40% in 2021.