Microsoft reported higher- than-expected quarterly revenue, helped by stronger sales of its phones, Surface tablets and cloud-computing products for companies, while keeping its profit margins largely intact. The results allayed fears of investors in recent days that the industry shift toward lower- margin cloud services was proving hard for established technology leaders to master.

Microsoft shares, which have climbed 33 per cent over the past year, rose another 3 per cent in after-hours trading to $46.36.

"In light of recent negative earnings results from tech bellwethers Oracle, IBM, SAP, VMware, and EMC, Microsoft is bucking the trend and we would label these September results as a solid accomplishment," said Daniel Ives, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets.

Reuters