Microsoft will release its financial results for the fourth quarter and full fiscal year of FY23 (Microsoft's fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30 of the following year) after the U.S. stock market closes on Tuesday this week.
The current market consensus is that Microsoft's revenue in the fourth quarter (April-June) is expected to grow by 6.9% YoY, showing a slight slowdown compared to the previous quarter. The expected earnings per share (EPS) are $2.55, indicating a significant improvement compared to the previous quarter.
Undoubtedly, Microsoft's cloud Azure and AI businesses are the highlights of this financial report. Azure is capitalizing on the market growth driven by the AI trend. Wolfe Research analyst Alex Zukin believes that Azure is projected to achieve a revenue growth of 27.5% this quarter, with a year-end YoY revenue growth rate reaching 30%.
In addition, the gradual commercialization of Office 365 Copilot and Bing Chat Enterprise is expected to contribute new sources of revenue growth. Last week, Microsoft announced that its new enterprise AI tool, Microsoft 365 Copilot, which is used in conjunction with Office software, will charge an additional service fee of $30 per user per month to enterprise customers. Citigroup analyst Tyler Radke believes that Microsoft Copilot has enormous potential and even with a penetration rate of just 5%, the product could generate at least $5 billion in incremental revenue for Office 365, close to half of last quarter's enterprise sales revenue from Office 365 ($9.4 billion).
However, the widespread commercial implementation of Office 365 Copilot and Bing Chat Enterprise is expected to occur after July 2023. Therefore, during this financial reporting season, it is more worthwhile to pay attention to the progress of the AI business and the company's performance guidance for the future.