Software giant Microsoft announced it ended its fiscal second quarter — fourth quarter of 2022 ended Dec. 31 — with net income down to $16.43 billion, compared with $18.77 billion in the same period a year earlier. .
A $1.2 billion charge weighed on Big Tech US’s quarterly report, which includes $800 million of liquidation costs that the group had to incur for the 10,000 announced workforce cuts.
Adjusted earnings per share came in at $2.32 per share, better than the $2.29 expected by analysts polled by Refinitiv.
Microsoft’s total revenue climbed 2% year over year, posting the lowest growth since 2016 at $52.75 billion, just shy of the $52.94 billion estimated by analysts.
The outlook for Microsoft’s third fiscal quarter, first quarter of 2023, is not very convincing: the giant has announced that it expects revenues between $50.5 billion and $51.5 billion, which it expects to grow by up to 3%, however lower than to the $52.43 billion analyst consensus estimate.
Microsoft -MSFT- stock is under pressure in afterhours trading on Wall Street, down more than 1% to $239.58.