Microsoft’s (US:MSFT) first-quarter results smashed broker expectations, offering investors a shining light in what has otherwise been a rather dismal US tech earnings season. Revenues rose 19 per cent to $29.1bn and EPS came in at $1.14 – ahead of consensus expectations of $27.9bn and 96¢, respectively.
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The only black spot in the numbers was the fact that growth at Azure – the group’s cloud computing product – has slowed. But 76 per cent like-for-like growth is hardly a figure to be scorned. Meanwhile, the PC division continued its recovery on the back of a return to growth in the global computing market.