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Microsoft Q1 profit hits $2.6 billion
Software giant beats Wall Street profit, sales forecasts

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- Microsoft cited increased consumer demand as a main reason Thursday why its first-quarter net income grew 28 percent over the year-ago quarter's $2.61 billion.


Microsoft (MSFT: news, chart, profile) shares fell 72 cents to $28.19 in after-hours trading after the No.1 software maker posted net income of 24 cents a share, which included $680 million in after-tax equity compensation. Excluding those charges, Microsoft earned 30 cents a share to beat the consensus of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call who had forecast 29 cents a share.

Revenue totaled $8.22 billion and topped analysts' estimates of $8.1 billion.

During the same period a year ago, Microsoft reported a net profit of $2.04 billion, or 19 cents a share, on sales of $7.75 billion.

Microsoft CFO John Connors said in a statement that corporate information-technology spending remained slow, but "we saw strength across all of our consumer businesses."

The company cited strong demand in back-to-school personal-computer sales as a main reason why revenue improved. Additionally, Microsoft said server and software-tool revenue grew 15 percent over last year to almost $1.9 billion.

Going forward, Microsoft said it expects to report second-quarter earnings, excluding onetime items for equity compensation, to be 29 cents to 30 cents a share, with revenue between $9.7 billion and $9.8 billion. Analysts had forecast a profit of 28 cents a share on sales of about $9.3 billion.

Microsoft also raised its full-year earnings and sales forecasts to a range of $1.10 to $1.12 a share on revenue between $34.8 billion and $35.3 billion. Previous Wall Street estimates put the company's earnings at $1.11 a share on sales of $34.7 billion.

Rex Crum is a reporter for CBS.MarketWatch.com in San Francisco.