Microsoft Down After Reporting Lower Adjusted Earnings (MSFT)

Technology giant Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) released its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings results on Thursday after the closing bell.

The company reported adjusted earnings per share and revenue that came in below analysts' consensus estimates. In late trade, the stock was last down almost 5 percent to $33.75.

Management Commentary

“While our fourth quarter results were impacted by the decline in the PC market, we continue to see strong demand for our enterprise and cloud offerings, resulting in a record unearned revenue balance this quarter. We also saw increasing consumer demand for services like Office 365, Outlook.com, Skype, and Xbox LIVE,” said Amy Hood, chief financial officer at Microsoft. “While we have work ahead of us, we are making the focused investments needed to deliver on long-term growth opportunities like cloud services.”

“We are working hard to deliver compelling new devices and high value experiences from Microsoft and our partners in the coming months, including new Windows 8.1 tablets and PCs,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft.

Q4 Results

Microsfot reported net income of $4.97 billion or $0.59 per share, compared to a net loss of $492 million or $0.06 per share, in last year's fourth-quarter.

On an adjusted basis, earnings per share were $0.52 versus $0.73 in the year ago period. The company's results badly missed Wall Street analysts' consensus EPS estimates of $0.75.

Revenue in the quarter was up to $19.90 billion from $18.06 billion last year. This also missed consensus revenue estimates of $20.73 billion.