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Microsoft's Personal Computing Unit & Windows Are Still Driving Growth

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Shares of Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) surged to a new all-time high Friday following the tech giant’s strong fourth-quarter earnings results. Yet, while much of the talk surrounds the company’s growing cloud computing unit and Azure, Microsoft’s More Personal Computing division, which includes Windows, remains its largest revenue driver.

Microsoft has seen its stock price jump 44% during the last 12 months, before it popped over 2.6% Friday morning to touch a new high of $108.20 per share. The move comes after the firm posted adjusted quarterly earnings of $1.13 per share, which not only beat our Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.07 per share but marked a roughly 15% climb from the $0.98 per share MSFT posted in the year-ago quarter.

At the top end of the income statement, Microsoft’s revenues climbed by 17% to $30.09 billion, which also topped our $29.21 billion estimate. The company and investors continue to point to its cloud computing business as reason to celebrate.

It is true that Microsoft’s cloud computing segment that competes against Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) , Oracle (ORCL - Free Report) , and Google (GOOGL - Free Report) is hugely important. “Our early investments in the intelligent cloud and intelligent edge are paying off, and we will continue to expand our reach in large and growing markets with differentiated innovation,” CEO Satya Nadella said in a company statement. But Microsoft’s More Personal Computing unit continues to play a vital role for the company.

Microsoft’s More Personal Computing unit saw its revenues surge by 17% to hit $10.8 billion, coming in above our exclusive non-financial metrics consensus estimate of $10.44 billion. Investors should note that Personal Computing revenues topped both Intelligent Cloud at $9.6 billion and Productivity and Business Processes at $9.7 billion.

The firm’ historic Windows business remains a huge revenue driver. Window’s OEM revenues popped by 7%, while Windows commercial products and cloud services saw their total revenues climb by 23%. Meanwhile, its widely popular gaming segment, which includes Xbox, soared 39%—with strong third-party title strength.

Moving on, Microsoft’s Surface tablet and laptop division saw its total sales climb by 25%. The company noted that the big year-over-year jump was based on slow year-ago sales. Lastly, its search advertising revenues, excluding traffic acquisition costs, jumped 17%.

For the full fiscal year 2018, Microsoft’s More Personal Computing business revenues hit $42.28 billion. This marked a roughly 7.5% climb from the $39.29 billion Microsoft posted last year and accounted for just over 38% of total company revenues—far more than Intelligent Cloud’s 29%.

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