After the closing bell on Tuesday, Microsoft released its fiscal Q1 2022 earnings, handily surpassing analysts' projections on both the top and bottom lines, with cloud revenue growing 36% year over year. On the news, the stock remained unchanged.
The most key figures from the report, as contrasted to what analysts were expecting, are listed below, as gathered by Bloomberg.
Microsoft's sales came in at $45.3 billion, compared to $43.93 billion forecast. Earnings per share were $2.71, compared to $2.07 projected by analysts, while revenue from the company's Intelligent Cloud division was $16.98 billion, against $16.58 billion expected.
Microsoft's Productivity & Business Processes revenue was $15.04 billion, compared to $14.70 billion forecast. Personal Computing brought in $13.31 million, compared to $12.68 million predicted.
"In an inflationary environment, digital technology is a deflationary factor," Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said in a statement.
"The Microsoft Cloud provides enterprises with end-to-end platforms and capabilities to help them manage this period of transition and change," he said.
Microsoft's cloud business is the company's most important area, contributing to its market capitalization of well over $2 trillion, and it is still growing.
Microsoft has begun rolling out Windows 11, its latest operating system, but a global chip scarcity, which is likely to endure until at least 2022, is limiting new computer sales.
Despite this, the business surpassed analyst estimates in the segment, with Windows OEM revenue increasing 10% in the quarter.
While business demand for desktop PCs is high, the semiconductor problem is limiting the supply of laptops, according to research agency Gartner.
Gartner research director Mikako Kitagawa, the availability of COVID-19 vaccines is leading people to spend their money on items other than computers.
In other words, as individuals return to the real world, they're more interested in spending money on things other than computers, such as eating out.
Based on preliminary statistics from Gartner, Inc., worldwide PC shipments totaled 84.1 million units in the third quarter of 2021, up 1% from the third quarter of 2020, Kitagawa noted in a news statement.
Consumer and school spending began to shift away from PCs as COVID-19 vaccines were more readily available, halting market momentum, Gartner statistics showed.
