The third quarter of the 2024 financial year ended with an increase in profits for Microsoft. Earnings improved from $2.45 per share to $2.94 per share, meaning the software company did better than the market expected. Analysts had previously forecast EPS of $2.82. The bottom line was that profits climbed by a fifth to almost $22 billion.
Microsoft continues to grow rapidly thanks to the boom in cloud offerings and products related to artificial intelligence (AI). Sales rose by 17 percent to almost 62 billion dollars (around 58 billion euros) in the third quarter of the current financial year (June 30). A year ago, Microsoft had revenues of 52.86 billion US dollars. The analysts’ estimates were also exceeded here; the expert estimates had previously amounted to 60.83 billion US dollars.
Microsoft gave a clear signal that its investments in cloud and artificial intelligence are paying off. The software giant entered into a pact with ChatGPT developer OpenAI and, on this basis, is integrating AI functions into more and more of its products. The need for computing power for artificial intelligence is in turn driving Microsoft’s cloud business.
Microsoft shares are up 2.43 percent at $408.75 in trading on the US stock exchange NASDAQ. With a market value of around three trillion dollars, Microsoft is currently the most valuable listed company in the world.
Editorial team finanzen.ch