SEATTLE — Microsoft Corp. said its fiscal first-quarter profit rose 23 percent as brisk sales of the new “Halo 3” video game, Windows and Office helped the software maker breeze past Wall Street’s expectations.
Investors cheered, sending shares up Thursday from $31.99 to $35.37, more than 10 percent, in after-hours electronic trading.
For the quarter ended Sept. 30, the software maker’s profit climbed to $4.29 billion, or 45 cents per share, from $3.48 billion during the same period last year. The results handily beat Wall Street’s predictions. Analysts, on average, had forecast a profit of 39 cents per share, according to a Thomson Financial poll.
Revenue grew 27 percent to $13.76 billion from $10.81 billion in the year-ago quarter. Analysts were looking for $12.57 billion in sales.
The business unit responsible for the Windows Vista operating system contributed $4.14 billion in revenue, 25 percent more than a year ago. Sales from the unit that makes the Office 2007 software suite rose 20 percent to $4.11 billion.
Sales of the “Halo 3” video game and the Xbox 360 consoles it is played on pushed the company’s entertainment and devices division to a profit of $165 million in the quarter — the Xbox division’s second time in the black. Revenue rose to $1.93 billion, nearly twice last year’s quarterly sales.
The division responsible for online advertising posted a loss of $264 million.
Microsoft increased its guidance for the fiscal year, saying it expected to earn $1.78 to $1.81 per share on revenue of up to $59.7 billion.
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