Microsoft tops estimates all round as cloud revenue soars

Tech giant Microsoft reported its earnings for its fiscal second quarter after markets closed on Thursday, showing a comprehensive beat on both revenue and income.

Strong revenue streams from its cloud operations helped the company to surpass analysts' estimates for the quarter.

Adjusted for Windows 10 Deferrals, earnings per share were $0.83, with the Wall Street consensus beforehand being $0.79. Total revenue was $26.07bn, outperforming the $25.3bn expected from analysts.

Cloud services have been boosting several major tech companies, and Microsoft has reaped the benefits of the sector, bringing in revenue of $6.86bn. That figure was higher than what was expected from analysts, and even the company's own forecasts.

Microsoft's main cloud business Azure saw a 96% increase in its revenue compared with the same quarter last year.

"Our customers are seeing greater value and opportunity as we partner with them through their digital transformation," said Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO.

"Accelerating advancements in AI across our platforms and services will provide further opportunity to drive growth in the Microsoft Cloud."

During the second quarter Microsoft closed their deal to acquire professional social network LinkedIn for $26bn.

Shares of the company traded 1.43% higher in after-hours trading following the earnings release.