Microsoft shares climb after reporting stronger-than-expected growth
Microsoft said growth remained subdued last quarter as concerns about the economy cooled consumer demand and business orders for the company's software and cloud services.
Microsoft Corp. ( MSFT ) said growth remained subdued last quarter as economic concerns cooled consumer demand and business orders for the company’s software and cloud services.
The software giant said revenue rose 7% year over year in the three months ended March. That increase, along with the company’s outlook for the current quarter, which beat analysts’ expectations, sent Microsoft’s stock sharply higher. But last quarter was the second straight quarter in which the company’s results fell below the multi-year trend of double-digit percentage growth.
The cloud computing business, Microsoft’s growth engine in recent years, has decelerated after years of expansion. Revenue from its Azure cloud computing business rose 27 percent in the quarter, the company said. That was in line with the average estimate of analysts polled by FactSet and was the company’s lowest quarterly gain ever.
“Customers continue to exercise some degree of caution as optimization and new workload trends from prior quarters continue,” Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy …
