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Microsoft earnings: 61 cents per share, vs expected 51 cents
Jacob Pramuk | @jacobpramuk
26 Mins Ago
CNBC.com

Microsoft posted quarterly profit and sales that beat Wall Street's expectations on Thursday, as strong growth in hardware and cloud computing canceled out a stronger U.S. dollar's drag on international business.

The software and technology company posted earnings of 61 cents per share on $21.73 billion in revenue for its fiscal 2015 third quarter. Profit dropped 10 percent while sales increased 6 percent from the year-earlier period.

"Customers continue to choose Microsoft to transform their business and as a result we saw incredible growth across our cloud services this quarter," said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in a release.

Shares were up 3 percent in extended trading.

Analysts expected Microsoft to post quarterly earnings of 51 cents per share on $21.06 billion in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.

Sales in commercial cloud computing, which includes Office 365 and Azure services, soared 106 percent year-over-year, helping Microsoft overcome declines in commercial Office and licensing segments. Microsoft has attempted to shift to cloud and mobile-based revenue streams as more consumers shift from personal computers.