Investing.com - Microsoft reported Tuesday third-quarter results that beat consensus estimates as its cloud business underpinned performance, shrugging off fears that slowing consumer spending would weigh on growth.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares gained 5% in after-hours trade following the report.
The company announced EPS of $2.45 on revenue of $52.9 billion. Analysts polled by Investing.com anticipated EPS of $2.24 on revenue of $51.12B.
Revenue in the company’s productivity and business processes was up 7% to $17.00B and its intelligent cloud business, which includes cloud business Azure, rose 18% to $21.51B.
Azure grew 31% in the quarter despite fears that a weaker customer backdrop would weigh on growth.
More Personal Computing, which includes sales of Windows to third-party PC makers, fell 19% to $14.24B.
Microsoft is up about 15% so far this year, riding on investor optimism about its lead in the Artificial Intelligence, or AI, race following a multi-billion dollar investment in ChatGPT developer OpenAI.