LIVE BLOG: Microsoft Q4 2018 earnings call

• During the after-market hours, Microsoft stock is up 3.3% at 7:30 PM ET
• The company sees accelerating enterprise deployment of Windows10, which creates demand for new devices and results in better-than-stronger PC OEM commercial market
• Capex will grow in fiscal 2019, but the growth rate will moderate
• Q&A starts
• Software and services growth rate will moderate due to strong third-party titles launched a year ago
• Gaming; expects mid-teens revenue growth with continued strong user engagement on the company’s platform
• More Personal Computing; revenue to be $9.95-10.25 billion
• Intelligent Cloud; revenue to be $8.15-8.35 billion, Azure revenue growth to be moderate in per-user services
• Productivity and Business Processes; revenue to be $9.25-9.45 billion
• Assuming currency rates remain stable, FX to increase revenue growth by about 1 point and decrease COGS and operating expenses by 1 point
• Moves to first quarter 2019 outlook
• FY19 effective tax rate should be about 17%
• Investments in commercial cloud, LinkedIn, gaming, and AI to resulting operating expense growth of about 7% in FY19
• Will continue to increase CapEx investments to meet growing demand for cloud services, although growth rate for the year is expected to moderate
• Double-digit growth expected in Productivity and Business Processes, driven by Office 365, Dynamics 365 and LinkedIn
• May witness quarterly volatility in commercial bookings growth and revenue
• Expects another year of strong revenue growth across commercial business
• Assuming currency rates remain stable, the company does not expect any impact for fiscal 2019 revenue growth
• Starts on the outlook
• GitHub acquisition is expected to close by the end of the calendar year
• LinkedIn; record levels of jobs posting, benefiting from the robust US job market
• Stronger dollar was a headwind during the quarter
• Microsoft stock is up about 3.5% at 6 PM ET in the after-market hours
• Amy Hood takes over the call

• Gaming; surpassed $10 billion in revenue this year for the first time
• Azure; expanded global data center footprint to 54 regions and added nearly 500 new capabilities in the last year
• LinkedIn has more than 575 million members, sessions growth 41% and mobile sessions up 55% Y-o-Y

• Has more than 135 million Office 365 commercial users and Windows10 is now active on nearly 700 million devices
• Full-year revenue was more than $110 billion with double-digit topline and bottom line growth
• Satya Nadella starts the prepared remarks

Microsoft (MSFT) reported better-than-expected results for the fourth quarter 2018. Non-GAAP earnings of $1.13 per share on revenue of $30.08 billion beat consensus estimates. Analysts had predicted earnings of $1.08 per share and revenue of $29.3 billion for the quarter ended June 30, 2018. The stock, which dropped 0.68% to $104.40 during today’s regular trading session, was up after the earnings release.

Related: Microsoft stock rises on upbeat Q4 earnings

Check out this space to know more about what management discusses on the earnings call.