Microsoft’s Stock (MSFT) To Open At New High, Azure Leads Earnings Beat

Microsoft’s stock (MSFT) is flying high in pre-market trading following a Q4 earnings report that handily beat Wall Street expectations, with impressive growth in its cloud and AI businesses, with Azure leading the way.

The MSFT stock price is trading 9% higher at what would be a huge new ATH of $559.50, after closing Thursday’s session at $513.24. This surge follows a week of positive momentum, with the stock smashing through the previous all-time high of $518.29 that was made on July 25th.

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The headline figure was Azure’s performance, with annual revenue exceeding $75 billion, a 34% increase year-over-year. This milestone underscores the company’s successful pivot towards AI-driven cloud services.

“Cloud and AI is the driving force of business transformation across every industry and sector,” stated Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft. “We’re innovating across the tech stack to help customers adapt and grow in this new era, and this year, Azure surpassed $75 billion in revenue, up 34 percent, driven by growth across all workloads.”

Microsoft Cloud revenue reached $46.7 billion in Q4, up 27% year-over-year (25% in constant currency). Overall Q4 revenue climbed to $73.8 billion, a 14% increase, while earnings per share are expected to reach $3.38, up from $2.95 last year.

Looking ahead, Microsoft anticipates strong growth to continue, projecting Azure revenue growth to accelerate to 37% in constant currency in Q1 FY2026. The company also plans significant capital expenditures exceeding $30 billion to support this expansion.

• Productivity and Business Processes revenue reached $33.1 billion, up 16%. Microsoft 365 Commercial revenue grew 16%, driven by an 18% increase in commercial cloud revenue. Microsoft 365 Consumer revenue increased 21%, with consumer cloud revenue growing 20%. LinkedIn revenue increased 9%, while Dynamics products and cloud services revenue increased 18%, spurred by a 23% increase in Dynamics 365 revenue.
• More Personal Computing revenue reached $13.5 billion, a 9% increase. Windows OEM and Devices revenue increased 3%, while Xbox content and services revenue increased 13%. Search and news advertising revenue (excluding traffic acquisition costs) grew 21%.
  

Microsoft’s Q1 FY2026 guidance includes revenue of $12.4B–$12.9B for More Personal Computing and $32.2B–$32.5B for Productivity and Business Processes. The company expects LinkedIn growth in the high single digits and Gaming revenue to decline in the mid-to-high single digits.