Microsofts stock falls as commercial sales miss Microsoft Corp. on Monday said its earnings fell more than 10% during the quarter ended December on costs related to its streamlining effort and its integration of the mobile phone business acquired from Nokia last year. Shares fell about 3% in recent after-hours trading as the companys collection of software like Windows, Office and server products sold to corporations came back down to earth a bit in the quarter. Sales in Microsofts commercial division rose 5%, a bit below analyst expectations and slower than the revenue growth in the prior two quarters. The companys bottom line has been hit in recent quarters by expenses related to job cuts started last summer and the Nokia mobile phone business that it acquired in April. The July plans included up to 18,000 jobs cuts, or about 14% of its workforce at the time, largely to clear up overlap with the Nokia businesses. For the period ended Dec. 31, Microsoft reported a profit of $5.86 billion, or 71 cents a share, down from $6.56 billion, or 78 cents a share, a year earlier. Microsoft said its per-share earnings in the latest quarter were hurt by 2 cents from costs related to integration and restructuring. Revenue increased to $26.47 billion from $24.52 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected per-share profit of 71 cents and revenue of $26.29 billion. Microsoft, which makes most of its profit on software sales to companies, reported that its commercial revenue rose to $13.3 billion from $12.7 billion. In its cloud business, which is much smaller but considered key to Microsofts growth, the company reported that sales more than doubled and is on pace to have $5.5 billion in revenue this fiscal year. Microsoft cited sales of its Web-friendly version of Office, a tool for salespeople and its Azure online service for the growth. In its devices and consumer segment, which includes the Nokia phone segment and its Xbox business, sales improved 8% to $12.9 billion. Sales of Microsofts Surface tablet jumped 24% to $1.1 billion. Xbox console sales fell to 6.6 million units, compared with 7.4 million units reported a year earlier. Through Mondays close, the stock has risen nearly 28% over the past 12 months.
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 12:29:59 +0000
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