Microsoft sales lifted by the cloud to $23.2B

"We are off to a great start to the year," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said on a conference call with analysts.

Shares of Microsoft MSFT popped after hours, trading up as much as 4%. The stock closed in regular trading Thursday at $45.02.

OFFICE 365 HOME

The consumer division, which includes devices, saw revenue growth of 47% to $10.96 billion, Microsoft said. Among highlights, Office 365 Home and Personal subscribers totaled more than 7 million, up more than 25% over the fourth quarter of 2014.
The company said sales of its Surface Pro 3 tablet/laptop hybrid drove revenue of $908 million for Surface tablets.

Commercial revenue grew 10% to $12.28 billion from a year ago. Importantly, commercial "cloud" revenue grew 128%, driven by Office 365 and the company's Azure cloud-computing platform.

Ahead of the announcement, Forrester analyst Frank Gillett said such growth is key as Microsoft moves "away from the old PC and software licensing model."

Indeed, cloud offerings are providing "major jet fuel in the engine for Microsoft," said FBR Capital Markets analyst Daniel Ives.

In July, the company announced its fourth-quarter earnings less than a week after making public plans to cut 18,000 employees, or about 14% of its workforce, mostly from its Nokia smartphone unit.

MODEST LUMIA SALES

Lifting its share of a smartphone market dominated by Google's Android platform and the Apple iPhone juggernaut is also crucial for Microsoft. Its Windows Phone had a 4.8% share of the U.S. market last year and is expected to decline slightly, according to eMarketer.

For the quarter, Microsoft said it sold 9.3 million Lumia smartphones, describing that as modest growth driven by European sales.

IDC analyst Al Hilwa called it a "much better quarter for Microsoft than many expected."

"Multiple parts of the business appear to be doing really well," he said, while calling the overall mobile strategy "still a work in progress."