According to a report by Trade Inc. Software giant, Microsoft saw its shares rise to an all-time high after it posted better-than-expected first quarter earnings. The Redmond, WA-headquartered maker of the ubiquitous Windows operating system said it earned 76 cents a share on revenue of $22.33 billion compared with estimates of 68 cents a share on $21.71 billion.

The company’s shares advanced 6% in the after-hours trading session as investor confidence that its cloud business is set to continue to grow. The company also said it aims to finalize its LinkedIn acquisition and other transactions in the 2nd fiscal quarter of 2017.

Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing offering saw its revenues balloon by 116% as more businesses opt to move more of their systems to the cloud despite high-profile hacks that have affected several large US corporations.

“These results are a vindication of Microsoft’s decision to push forward with cloud computing development at a time when high profile security breaches are becoming an almost monthly occurrence,” said an analyst at Trade Inc. in Taiwan.

“There are plenty of suggestions that part of the reason for the surge in the company’s stock is its plan to buyback some $40 billion of its own shares but we think that’s a little cynical,” added the Trade Inc. analyst. “They’ve shown they can stand toe to toe with the likes of Google and Amazon both of whom have a large share of the cloud computing market.”

Trade Inc. reaffirmed its buy rating on MSFT citing a price target of $66 provided the LinkedIn integration goes smoothly.

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