MSFT Microsoft Corporation

By Chelsey Dulaney 

Microsoft Corp. on Thursday reported better-than-expected adjusted earnings and revenue for its latest quarter, as strength in its cloud business continued to drive growth.

Shares rose 6.2% to $55.30 a share in after-hours trading.

Microsoft, like many mature tech companies, has been struggling to grow. The software maker is focusing on its cloud-services segment, which includes services like Azure and was recently broken out into a new reporting segment.

In the fiscal second quarter, revenue for Microsoft's "Intelligent Cloud" segment rose 5% to $6.34 billion. On a constant-currency basis, revenue grew 11% but slowed from the 14% growth it posted in the first quarter.

Microsoft revenue for Azure, its cloud-computing platform, surged 140% excluding currency impacts, while server products and cloud services revenues were up 10%.

That comes as Microsoft's best-known business--software for personal computers--continued to weaken. That segment, which also includes its Xbox videogame consoles and popular Surface Pro, posted a 2% decline in revenue excluding currency impacts. The segment was hurt by lower Windows revenue and the company's decision to scale back its smartphone business, offset in part by a 29% increase in Surface revenue.

Operations Chief Kevin Turner said Microsoft experienced a "strong holiday season," citing growth at Xbox and Surface, which recently launched the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book.

In all for the period ended Dec. 31, Microsoft reported a profit of $5 billion, or 62 cents a share, down from $5.86 billion, or 71 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding the impact of revenue deferrals and restructuring charges, adjusted earnings rose to 78 cents from 70 cents a year earlier.

Revenue fell 10% to $23.8 billion, or $25.69 billion on an adjusted basis.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected adjusted per-share profit of 71 cents and revenue of $25.26 billion.

Revenue in Microsoft's productivity and business processes unit, which includes Office commercial products, rose 5% on a constant-currency basis. Microsoft cited higher Office 365 and dynamics revenues.

Write to Chelsey Dulaney at Chelsey.Dulaney@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 28, 2016 16:45 ET (21:45 GMT)

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