Microsoft stocks up despite falling profits
Profits at Microsoft are down compared to a year ago.
The share price of Microsoft rose last night (April 24th) after the technology company revealed its latest financial results in a statement.
Stocks rose in after-hours trading on the Nasdaq even though Microsoft announced its profits for the first quarter of the year were lower than those recorded by the firm 12 months ago.
Microsoft stated that it made a net profit of $5.66 billion (£3.37 billion) in the first quarter, which was ahead of the estimations of analysts.
Chief executive Satya Nadella, who replaced Steve Ballmer as the head of the company earlier in the year, noted that Microsoft has made good process in its consumer services like Bing and Office 365 Home in the last few months.
He also pointed out that its commercial customers "continue to embrace our cloud solutions". Mr Nadella is a cloud specialist, which led to speculation Microsoft would go further down this path in the near future under his new leadership.
Xbox sales
Microsoft revealed in the financial results that it sold two million Xbox consoles – including 1.2 million of the next generation Xbox Ones – during the period. The Xbox One is in strong competition with the PlayStation 4, which is the new games offering from rival firm Sony.
"We delivered solid, broad-based financial results driven by strong execution and continued cost discipline," said Amy Hood, executive vice-president and chief financial officer at Microsoft. "We are focusing our resources to drive growth and long-term shareholder value."
Office 365 Home was revealed to be up to 4.4 million subscribers, having added almost one million subscribers in just three months, while Surface revenue grew over 50 per cent and now stands at approximately $500 million and Bing US search share grew to 18.6 per cent with search advertising revenue up 38 per cent as well.
Following the release of the data, Microsoft shares rose by 0.43 per cent in the normal trading session on the Nasdaq, adding a further 2.51 per cent in the after-hours period on the market.
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