Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) stock gained almost 3% on Friday as investors continue to lean into strong cloud demand and upbeat AI adoption signals, even while the Technology sector is down 0.7% and the S&P 500 is up 0.2%.
The latest earnings snapshot showed a 14th straight "double beat," with quarterly revenue of $90.01 billion (+18%) and EPS of $4.74 topping consensus.
The overall cloud revenue rose 27% to $59.3 billion.
Intelligent Cloud revenue climbed 32% to $39.3 billion, and Azure and other cloud services revenue grew 43%, helping frame why buyers are still willing to pay up for the AI/cloud story.
BNP Paribas analyst Stefan Slowinski said Microsoft strengthened its position as a leading AI beneficiary after fiscal fourth-quarter results showed progress across Azure, Microsoft 365 Copilot, GitHub Copilot and AI infrastructure.
