Microsoft Reports Sharp Rise in Third-Quarter Profit on Fewer Legal Fees, Revenue Misses Views
REDMOND, Wash. (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. said Thursday that third-quarter earnings nearly doubled from last year, when the company incurred legal charges of $2.53 billion, but revenue failed to meet Wall Street expectations.
Net income rose to $2.56 billion, or 23 cents per share, from $1.32 billion, or 12 cents per share, a year ago. Latest-quarter results included legal charges of 5 cents per share, down from 17 cents per share in the year-earlier period. The 2005 period also included stock options expensing which weighed on profit.
Revenue increased 5 percent to $9.62 billion from $9.18 billion last year, driven by healthy growth in the company's server and tools business.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were looking for the company to post earnings of 32 cents per share on sales of $9.83 billion in the latest quarter. The company would have met earnings projections, except for expenses of 4 cents a share due to options expensing, a new accounting requirement.
The company said Mobile and Embedded Devices revenue grew 31 percent over the prior year as Windows Mobile products experienced strong demand.
"Despite a mixed enterprise software environment, the quarter played out largely as we expected and operating income and earnings per share results were in line with our expectations," said Scott Di Valerio, corporate vice president and corporate controller at Microsoft.
"Given our optimism about the future with our strong product pipeline and the growth opportunities from our investments in innovative products and services, we expect increased revenue growth in fiscal 2006," Di Valerio continued.
Microsoft shares fell 54 cents, or 2.2 percent, to close earlier at $24.45 on the Nasdaq.