Microsoft Shares gain as ‘Cloud’ growth continues
Microsoft Corp. shares rose the most since April 2020, after the software giant gave a forecast that reassured investors the company’s Azure cloud-computing business still has potential to drive growth, key points of Q3 report;
- In the Computing division, Windows and Xbox, revenue was $17.5 billion.
- Sales of Office 365 to business customers rose 19%.
- Revenue from Windows operating-system software sold to PC makers increased 25%.
Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella has turned the company’s Azure business into a solid No. 2, behind Amazon in the market for cloud infrastructure services.
But, Microsoft faces steep competition for big contracts from the likes of Amazon and Alphabet Inc.’s Google.
The stock gained as much as 6.9% in New York Stock exchange (NYSE) “This will help calm Street tech growth worries,” said Dan Ives,senior analyst at Wedbush.
Microsoft’s fiscal second-quarter earnings report on Tuesday showed sales that topped $50 billion for the first time and profit that exceeded analysts’ estimates
The software giant is one of the first of the largest technology companies to report earnings, and now investors are closely watching the results from the likes of Apple & Google’s Alphabet.
