LIVE: Microsoft beats on revenue and profit, stock pops

Microsoft's fast-growing cloud business helped the company post a nice beat for the holiday shopping quarter of 2015 - and the stock jumped by as much as 8%.

Here's the report:

• Revenue of $25.7 billion (non-GAAP) is down 2% year-on-year, but ahead of the $25.26 billion expected by Wall Street.
• Earnings per share (EPS, non-GAAP) of $0.78, vs. $0.71 estimated.

Microsoft shares initially jumped more than 8% after announcing results, but gave up some gains and were trading up about 4% at about $54.20.

Cloud strength

Many of Microsoft's businesses declined during the quarter, but the important businesses that investors believe are key to the company's future, such as the cloud business, delivered strong growth during the quarter.

Microsoft Azure cloud business - which competes head-on with the Amazon Web Services juggernaut - grew 127% from the same quarter in 2014.

Some of Microsoft's hardware businesses also performed well during the final three months of the year, including the Surface line of convertible tablets, which grew revenue 29% year-on-year, and the Xbox gaming consoles (although Microsoft does not release XBox sales figures).

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