Microsoft Commercial Cloud Surges 34%

January 27, 2021

Microsoft reported results for the quarter ended December 31, 2020. Earnings came in at $2.03 per share, adjusted with only $1.64 per share expected. On revenue, the firm delivered $43.08 billion with $40.18 billion expected.

•Revenue was $43.1 billion and increased 17%

•Operating income was $17.9 billion and increased 29%

•Net income was $15.5 billion and increased 33%

•Diluted earnings per share was $2.03 and increased 34%

“What we have witnessed over the past year is the dawn of a second wave of digital transformation sweeping every company and every industry,” said Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft. “Building their own digital capability is the new currency driving every organization’s resilience and growth. Microsoft is powering this shift with the world’s largest and most comprehensive cloud platform.”

“Accelerating demand for our differentiated offerings drove commercial cloud revenue to $16.7 billion, up 34% year over year,” said Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft. “We continue to benefit from our investments in strategic, high-growth areas.”

Microsoft guided at $40.35 billion to $41.25 billion in fiscal third-quarter revenue. The half way number of $40.8 billion, implies 16.5% growth and is higher than the $38.70 billion consensus.

Business Highlights

Revenue in Productivity and Business Processes was $13.4 billion and increased 13% (up 11% in constant currency), with the following business highlights:

Office Commercial products and cloud services revenue increased 11% (up 9% in constant currency) driven by Office 365 Commercial revenue growth of 21% (up 20% in constant currency)
Office Consumer products and cloud services revenue increased 7% (up 6% in constant currency) and Microsoft 365 Consumer subscribers increased to 47.5 million
LinkedIn revenue increased 23% (up 22% in constant currency)
Dynamics products and cloud services revenue increased 21% (up 18% in constant currency) driven by Dynamics 365 revenue growth of 39% (up 37% in constant currency)

Revenue in Intelligent Cloud was $14.6 billion and increased 23% (up 22% in constant currency), with the following business highlights:

Server products and cloud services revenue increased 26% (up 24% in constant currency) driven by Azure revenue growth of 50% (up 48% in constant currency)

Revenue in More Personal Computing was $15.1 billion and increased 14% (up 13% in constant currency), with the following business highlights:

Windows OEM revenue increased 1%
Windows Commercial products and cloud services revenue increased 10% (up 8% in constant currency)
Xbox content and services revenue increased 40% (up 38% in constant currency)
Surface revenue increased 3% (up 1% in constant currency)
Search advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs increased 2% (up 1% in constant currency)

Microsoft returned $10 billion to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021, an increase of 18% compared to the second quarter of fiscal year 2020.