Microsoft Reports Strong Q4 Earnings, Azure Revenue Surpasses $10 Billion
Microsoft (MSFT) reported fourth-quarter earnings that exceeded Wall Street's expectations on both revenue and profit. The company achieved a milestone with its Azure cloud service generating over $10 billion in revenue for the first time. Additionally, Microsoft’s capital expenditures came in below forecasts at $41 billion compared to an expected $42 billion. The Intelligent Cloud segment reported revenue of $39.3 billion against expectations of $38.1 billion. Investors were relieved by lower-than-expected capex and unchanged 2026 plans, which helped drive a more than 15% surge in Microsoft stock early on Thursday. In contrast, Alphabet (GOOG) recently raised its capital expenditure forecast for the year to between $195 billion and $205 billion, causing its shares to fall over 6%. Despite this recent positive performance, Microsoft's stock is still down nearly 19% year-to-date due to ongoing concerns about aggressive spending impacting free cash flow.
Topics: Azure cloud revenue capital expenditures Microsoft stock performance