Microsoft Misses FQ4 Bottom Line On 17% Rev Growth

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) missed earnings expectations but posted a 17 percent increase in fiscal fourth-quarter revenue citing strong results from its cloud-based products.http://www.microsoft.com/investor/EarningsAndFinancials/Earnings/PressReleaseAndWebcast/FY14/Q4/default.aspxProfits fell 7 percent to $4.61 billion, or $0.56 cents a share, from $4.97 billion, or $0.59 cents a year earlier. Revenue grew to $23.38 billion, from $19,896 a year earlier.Wall Street expected $0.60 cents a share on revenue of $23 billion.Gross margin widened to $15.79 billion, from $14.29 billion a year earlier."I'm proud our aggressive move to the cloud is paying off," Chief Executive Satya Nadella said in a statement, noting that cloud revenue doubled to a $4.4 billion annual run rate. Revenue for cloud-based Office 365 and Azure both grew more than 100 percent, according to Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner,The $7 billion acquisition of Nokia completed in April contributed earnings in the fourth quarter of 8 cents a share along with $1.99 billion in revenue, the company said.An outlook for fiscal 2015 earnings is expected in a conference call starting at 5:30 p.m. eastern time.Microsoft traded recently after hours at $45.15, up 0.71 percent.