Microsoft Shares Up 5 Percent on Better Than Expected Quarterly Results

Revenue, profits up over a year ago

Microsoft's recent reorganization got off to an encouraging start Thursday when it reported better-than-expected quarterly results.

The company reported a first-quarter profit of $5.2 billion, or 62 cents per share, on revenue of $18.5 billion. Both are improvements from a year ago, when Microsoft rang up a $4.7 billion (53 cents) profit on revenue of $16 billion.