Microsoft's Azure seen as giving strength to company's Q4 results
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Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is set to report its fiscal fourth-quarter results after Tuesday's market close, and investors and analysts will likely focus on matters such as the software giant's Azure cloud business.
Analysts currently estimate that Microsoft (MSFT) will report a profit of $2.29 a share on revenue of $52.4B. In June, Microsoft (MSFT) cuts its quarterly outlook to a profit of between $2.24 and $2.32 a share, on revenue in a range of $51.94B to $52.74B. The company had earlier forecast earnings between $2.28 and $2.35 a share, on revenue of $52.4B to $53.2B. 
Microsoft (MSFT) said it expected its results to be affected by a $460M impact from foreign currency exchange rates.
Wells Fargo analyst Michael Turrin said that despite cutting its fourth-quarter outlook, Microsoft's (MSFT) long-term prospects remain intact. Turrin said the company is "well-entrenched within several significant end markets." Specifically, Turrin called Microsoft's (MSFT) Azure product line "a share gainer" in the cloud services market, and said Microsoft (MSFT) is "the cleanest way to play the continued shift of IT purchasing dollars toward software and [the] cloud."
Turrin added that Microsoft (MSFT) "is not immune" to broader market issues such as declining demand for spending on advertising and the effects of the war between Russia and Ukraine. However, Turrin said that Microsoft's (MSFT) sheer size and market presence make it among "the best-positioned [companies] in software to weather the storm."
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives also said recently that he believes Microsoft's (MSFT) quarter will likely show strength from its Azure business.