Yesterday, Microsoft became the third publicly traded U.S. company to hit a $1 trillion market capitalization after the company reported a strong quarter this week. Apple was the first to hit $1 trillion in August 2018 followed by Amazon one month later. However, both of those companies are now hovering at about $968 billion and $936 billion respectively.
Microsoft’s stock has been growing at a rapid pace. In the last two years, the stock price grew nearly 100% due to the adoption of Windows 10, the growth of Office, and cloud computing initiatives.
Amazon is still the market leader when it comes to cloud computing with Amazon Web Services (AWS), but Microsoft Azure has been steadily making gains. Last year AWS hit $25.6 billion in revenue — which is up 47% from 2017. Revenue from Microsoft Azure has grown 73% year-over-year for the third fiscal quarter.
The Microsoft commercial cloud unit includes revenue generated from Azure, Office 365, Dynamics 365, and LinkedIn commercial. This business grew to $9.6 billion for the third quarter and is up 41% year-over-year. Microsoft also increased its dividend by 9.5% to $0.46 and the company has been buying back a substantial number of shares every year.
Microsoft reported $30.6 billion in revenue for the quarter, which is an increase of 14% year-over-year. And operating income increased 25% with an EPS of $1.14.
“Leading organizations of every size in every industry trust the Microsoft cloud. We are accelerating our innovation across the cloud and edge so our customers can build the digital capability increasingly required to compete and grow,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in a statement.
LinkedIn saw a 27% revenue increase and Surface devices grew 21% year-over-year. Plus the commercial and consumer versions of Office jumped 12% and 8% respectively.
“Demand for our cloud offerings drove commercial cloud revenue to $9.6 billion this quarter, up 41% year-over-year,” added Microsoft CFO and EVP Amy Hood. “We continue to drive growth in revenue and operating income with consistent execution from our sales teams and partners and targeted strategic investments.”
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