Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT)  has posted better than expected results in the fourth quarter of FY 17 ended June 30th, as the MSFT almost doubled revenues from its cloud computing service Azure in the most recent quarter.

On the other hand, Microsoft stock lost over 0.6% post the announcement of the result, after the company provided guidance for the next quarter. MSFT is number two behind Amazon in cloud services, with Google fighting to catch up fast. The improved profitability in the fourth quarter is partly due to the expanding margins in the cloud business. For the full fiscal year, Microsoft has reported $25.9 billion of non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP revenue of $96.7 billion.

MSFT in the fourth quarter of FY 17 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of 98 cents, beating the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of 71 cents according to Thomson Reuters. The company had reported the adjusted revenue of $24.7 billion in the fourth quarter of FY 17, beating the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $24.27 billion.

Moreover, Azure revenue enhanced 97 percent year over year, and Azure’s gross margin improved in the fourth quarter. Microsoft is so focused on these days in the cloud business, Alphabet with its G Suite and Google Cloud Platform, represents competition. Amazon is also a significant player with its market-leading Amazon Web Services public cloud. Further, MSFT’s total commercial cloud business, that includes Azure and software services such as Office 365 and Dynamics 365, has posted revenues of just under $15bn during the last fiscal year. The gross margins in commercial cloud have improved by 10 percentage points.

Additionally, LinkedIn has contributed $1.1 billion in revenue to Microsoft’s Productivity and Business Processes segment, posted revenue growth of 21 percent.

For the first quarter of FY 18, Microsoft expects the revenue to be between $23.6bn and $24.3bn, which would be 7 per cent higher than last year at the midpoint. Wall Street expectations were for $24.2bn, according to S&P Capital IQ. Earlier this month, MSFT had said that it would lay off thousands of employees, primarily in sales, in an effort to boost its cloud business as it begins its 2018 fiscal year.

Microsoft stock has risen 32.3% in the last one year (source: Google Finance).