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Microsoft’s disclosures about how corporate tech spending is shaping up in 2023 will get close attention as the software giant reports on Tuesday afternoon.
Among analysts polled by FactSet, the consensus is for Microsoft to report December quarter (fiscal second quarter) revenue of $52.99 billion (up 2.4% annually) and EPS of $2.29 (down 7.5%).
Microsoft shares quarterly sales guidance for its reporting segments on its earnings call. For the March quarter, the company’s revenue consensus stands at $52.42 billion (up 6.2%).
Eric Jhonsa, Real Money’s tech columnist, will be live-blogging Microsoft’s earnings report, along with a conference call scheduled for 5:30 P.M. Eastern Time.
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4:26 PM ET: FQ2 revenue by business segment:
Productivity & Business Processes (Office, Dynamics, LinkedIn) – $17B, +7% Y/Y and above a $16.79B consensus
Intelligent Cloud (Azure, server software) – $21.51B, +18% and above a $21.43B consensus
More Personal Computing (Windows, Xbox, Surface, ads) – $14.24B, -19% and below a $14.76B consensus.
4:23 PM ET: $6.8B was spent on capex in FQ2, compared with $6.6B in FQ1 and $7.4B a year earlier.
4:21 PM ET: Weighing on EPS some: While revenue grew 2%, Microsoft’s operating expenses were up 19% Y/Y on a GAAP basis to $14.9B, and 11% excluding one-time charges.
With Microsoft having slowed down hiring and just announced layoffs, opex growth will likely slow in the coming quarters.
4:16 PM ET: Dollar-based and CC revenue growth for various Microsoft businesses. As the numbers show, forex was a big headwind across the board, and big declines in Windows OEM, Devices (Surface, Xbox, etc.) and to a lesser extent Xbox content/services revenue also weighed on the top line.
On the other hand, Azure, Dynamics, LinkedIn, search/news ads, and server products and cloud services recorded double-digit growth, and Office Commercial grew 7%.
4:09 PM ET: Shares are holding onto their gains: They’re now up 4.9% AH to $254.00. Here’s the FQ2 report, for those wanting to take a look.
4:08 PM ET: Commercial bookings were up 7% Y/Y in dollars and 4% in constant currency. With bookings up 32% in dollars and 37% in CC a year ago, Microsoft was facing a tough annual comp.
Notably, Microsoft’s commercial RPO (contract backlog) was up 29% in dollars and 26% in CC to $189B.
4:05 PM ET: Revenue rose 2% Y/Y in dollars and 7% in constant currency.
Azure revenue rose 31% in dollars and 38% in CC, slightly topping CC guidance of 37%.
4:04 PM ET: GAAP EPS, which bakes in $0.12/share of “severance, hardware-related impairment, and lease consolidation costs,” was $2.20.
4:02 PM ET: Results are out. FQ2 revenue of $52.75B slightly misses a $52.99B consensus. Adjusted EPS of $2.32 beats a $2.29 consensus.
Shares are up 4.1% after-hours.
4:00 PM ET: Microsoft’s stock closed down 0.2% to $242.04. The FQ2 report should be out shortly.
3:57 PM ET: As usual, Microsoft’s Azure revenue growth will be closely watched. In October, Microsoft guided for constant-currency Azure growth (42% in FQ1) to drop about 5 points sequentially.
3:51 PM ET: The FactSet consensus is for FQ2 revenue of $52.99B and EPS of $2.29.
With 2023 IT budgets getting set right now, a lot of attention will probably be given to Microsoft’s revenue guide (the FQ3 revenue consensus is at $52.42B), along with its commercial bookings growth and general commentary about corporate spending trends.
3:47 PM ET: Hi, this is Eric Jhonsa. I’ll be live-blogging Microsoft’s earnings report and call.
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