Microsoft Posts Strongest Quarterly Gain in 35 Years
Microsoft has reported its strongest quarterly stock gain in 35 years, but the rally left it barely above where it started the year and still below its all-time high.
The company closed its September quarter at $512.90 on September 30, 2026, adding 0.77% in the final session. This is a significant increase of about 39% in the third quarter of 2026, its best quarter since the first quarter of 1991.
Azure and Copilot Powered the Rally: Azure and other cloud services revenue up 43% in the fiscal fourth quarter, while management put full-year Azure growth at 41%. Intelligent Cloud revenue reached $39.31 billion, up 32%.
The company is moving to a 'per seat plus consumption' model for Microsoft 365 Copilot, which passed 30 million paid seats. Part of the beat was one-time, because non-GAAP EPS of $4.74 exceeded the $4.24 consensus, but it included a $3.2 billion gain on the Anthropic stake.