Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is set to announce its second-quarter fiscal 2024 results on January 30, with expectations of robust performance driven by the sustained growth of its cloud platform, Azure.
For the fiscal second quarter, Microsoft anticipates Intelligent Cloud revenues, which includes Azure, to be in the range of $21.5 billion to $25.4 billion.
My model estimates Intelligent Cloud revenues at $25.11 billion, signaling a 16.8% growth compared to the year-ago quarter.
Continued Growth in Azure to Propel Revenue
Microsoft has been capitalizing on the ongoing demand for cloud infrastructure monitoring, web-based application performance management, and human capital management solutions, fueled by the increasing migration of workloads to the cloud.
In the case of Azure, Microsoft anticipates revenue growth in the range of 26-27% at constant currency (cc), with contributions from all Azure AI services.
In the previous fiscal quarter, Azure exhibited a year-over-year top-line growth rate of 29% (up 28% at cc), surpassing the 26% (up 27% at cc) reported in the preceding quarter. The growth is attributed to Azure’s consumption-based business, and Microsoft expects these trends to persist into the second quarter. The company’s per-user business is likely to benefit from the momentum in the Microsoft 365 suite.
Microsoft is also witnessing growing momentum with Azure Arc, boasting 21,000 customers, a 140% increase year over year, including prominent names like Carnival Corp., Domino’s, and Thermo Fisher.
The expanded availability of Azure in over 60 announced global regions is expected to strengthen Microsoft’s competitive position in the cloud computing market, where it faces competition from Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) division, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL).
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Author Stephanie Bédard-Châteauneuf 
