Microsoft Q4 Earnings Blow Past Estimates; Shares Rocket 8% After-Hours

TradingKey - On July 30, local time, Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) announced its fourth-quarter earnings after market close, surpassing market expectations. Its stock price surged more than 8% in after-hours trading, with a cumulative gain of 23% over the past six months.

(Source: Google Finance)

The earnings report revealed that the company achieved earnings per share of $3.65 for the quarter, significantly exceeding the widely anticipated figure of $3.37. Quarterly revenue climbed to $76.44 billion, comfortably surpassing the expected $73.81 billion and rising 18% compared to $64.7 billion in the same period last year.

The Intelligent Cloud segment generated $29.88 billion in revenue during the quarter, representing approximately 26% year-over-year growth. This result not only demonstrated sustained growth momentum but also exceeded StreetAccount's prior forecast of $28.92 billion.

Notably, in this earnings report, Microsoft disclosed for the first time a specific dollar-based outlook for Azure's future scale, projecting that revenue from Azure and other cloud services will exceed $75 billion in fiscal year 2025, reflecting a 34% year-over-year growth rate.

During the quarter, the company celebrated its historic 50th anniversary while announcing the layoff of more than 6,000 employees to optimize operational efficiency.

In terms of product and technological innovation, Microsoft launched new features for GitHub designed to more efficiently assign coding tasks to the Copilot assistant, further strengthening its positioning within the artificial intelligence and developer tools sectors.

Wall Street analysts broadly expressed optimism regarding Microsoft's AI growth potential. UBS raised its target price for Microsoft shares from $500 to $600 and maintained a "Buy" rating. Citigroup had previously increased its target price from $605 to $613 and listed Microsoft among its top-pick stocks.