Microsoft Corp has announced strong growth in earnings and revenue for the quarter ended 31 December, but its shares continued to pull back in after-hours trading.
The technology giant said net income and diluted earnings per share (EPS) rose 10% to US$24.1 billion and $3.23 respectively, operating income surged 17% to $31.7 billion and revenue increased 12% to $69.6 billion in the second quarter (Q2) of the 2025 financial year.
“We delivered another quarter of double digit top and bottom line growth,” Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said on a webcast.
Before the result was released to the market, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) shares closed $4.87 (1.09%) lower at $442.33, and the weakness continued in after-hours trading as the price eased further to $435.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said Microsoft was innovating across its “tech stack” and helping customers unlock the full return on investment of artificial intelligence (AI) to capture “the massive opportunity ahead".
“Already, our AI business has surpassed an annual revenue run rate of $13 billion, up 175% year-over-year,” Nadella said in a press release.
Hood said Microsoft Cloud revenue was $40.9 billion in the December quarter, up 21% on the previous corresponding period.
”We remain committed to balancing operational discipline with continued investments in our cloud and AI infrastructure,” she said in the release.
Microsoft paid $9.7 billion dividends and share repurchases in the second quarter of fiscal year 2025.
The shares dipped on slower-than-expected growth in its Azure cloud business and higher than forecast expenditure in Q2, according to a Reuters report.
Analysts had forecast revenue of $68.9 billion, EPS of $3.11 and Cloud revenue of more than the 31% reported.