Shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) fell 7.7% on Wednesday after the tech giant told investors to brace for a steep downturn in the personal computer (PC) market and a decelerating pace of expansion in the cloud.

Microsoft's revenue grew by 11% year over year to $50.1 billion in its fiscal 2023 first quarter, which ended on Sept. 30. Excluding foreign exchange fluctuations, the software maker's sales rose by 16%. The gains were fueled by a 20% rise in sales in Microsoft's Intelligent Cloud segment, to $20.3 billion.

Yet the company's most powerful growth driver -- its Azure cloud computing platform -- saw its revenue growth slow to 35%, from 40% in the prior quarter and 50% in the year-ago period. That was also below Wall Street's estimates, which had called for Azure's revenue to increase by more than 36%. 

Continue reading

Source Fool.com