The Microsoft Q4 2017 earnings were released after closing bell tonight. For its fourth fiscal quarter, the technology firm reported non-GAAP earnings of 98 cents per share on $23.3 billion in GAAP revenue or $24.7 billion in non-GAAP revenue, compared to the consensus estimates of 71 cents per share and $24.3 billion in revenue. In last year’s fourth fiscal quarter, Microsoft reported $22.6 billion in non-GAAP revenue and $20.6 billion in GAAP revenue.
Microsoft Q4 2017 earnings
On a GAAP basis, Microsoft Q4 2017 earnings amounted to 83 cents per share, versus the 61 cents per share that had been estimated and the 69 cents per share that was recorded in the year-ago quarter.
Productivity and Business Solutions business revenue $8.4 billion, up 21% year over year and a match for the $8.4 billion that had been estimated by Wall Street. The More Personal Computing business contributed $8.8 billion in revenue, a 2% year over year decline, while analysts had been looking for $8.6 billion from the segment. Intelligent Cloud revenues grew 11% to $7.4 billion; analysts had wanted to see $7.32 billion from the division.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) management said commercial bookings increased 30% in the fourth quarter.
Microsoft records strong growth in the cloud
Within the all-important Intelligent Cloud business, Microsoft’s server products and cloud services revenue grew 15% driven by a 97% increase in Azure revenues. Enterprise Services revenue fell 3%, driven by fewer custom support agreements. In the company’s Productivity and Business Processes division, Office commercial products and cloud services revenue grew 5%, while Office consumer products and cloud services revenue increased 13%. Dynamics products and cloud services revenue grew 7%. LinkedIn also contributed $1.1 billion in revenue.
Microsoft said lower phone revenues drove the decline in More Personal Computing revenue. Windows OEM revenue rose 1%, which was slightly better than the overall PC market. Commercial products and cloud services revenue in the PC segment grew 8%, while Surface revenue fell 2%. Search ad revenue grew 10%, excluding traffic acquisition results, while gaming revenue rose 3% year over year on the back in Xbox software and services.
Following the Microsoft Q4 2017 earnings report, the company’s stock rose by as much as 0.92% to $74.90 in after-hours trades.
