$Microsoft (MSFT.US)$ rose some 6% after hours Wednesday after the tech giant beat analyst estimates for its Q3 earnings and revenues.
MSFT gained 6.1% to $419.40 shortly before 5 p.m. ET after reporting fiscal third-quarter adjusted earnings of $3.46 a share on revenue of $70.1 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected earnings of $3.22 a share on revenue of $68.4 billion.
In the same period last year, the company reported earnings of $2.94 a share and revenue of $61.9 billion.
Overall cloud revenue in the quarter rose 20% year-over-year to $42.4 billion, but the company's closely watched Azure public-cloud business saw 33% growth, a pickup from last quarter's 31% growth.
Microsoft also reported capital expenditures in the quarter of $16.7 billion, slightly higher than Wall Street estimates of $16.2 billion and up from the $11 billion in the same period one year ago.
Microsoft said in its earnings press release that it would provide outlook information on its conference call, which was scheduled to start later Wednesday.
Investors will mostly be listening for any guidance the company gives following the Trump administration's implementation of tariffs. Microsoft products like its Xbox console and its tablets could eventually see price increases that may hit demand, while a broader economic slowdown impacting enterprise spending could be another problem for the tech giant down the line.
Strong outlooks given by fellow software companies SAP and ServiceNow last week show that businesses haven't pulled back spending on software just yet.
"The services we offer customers broadly across the cloud and AI capabilities, are helping them grow their businesses, drive efficiencies, increase productivity, and those type of services oftentimes are exactly what customers are looking for in these moments," Kendra Goodenough, Microsoft's senior director of investor relations, told Barron's earlier Wednesday.
