Microsoft shareholders may not be impressed (the company’s stock has been a little droopy in after-hours trading), but the quarter ending December 31st seems to have gone well.  Microsoft reported its earnings this afternoon and beat analysts’ forecasts by significant margins.

The key figures: analysts thought Microsoft would report earnings per share of $0.68.  The company reported earnings per share of $0.77, instead, which represents a pretty significant jump.  Also, Microsoft reported $19.95 billion in revenue rather than $19.14 billion, and $6.63 billion in net income rather than $5.92 billion.

Otherwise, Microsoft was quick to share the fact that it’s sold more than 300 million Windows 7 licenses, and that the beta version of Internet Explorer 9 has been downloaded over 20 million times (making it "Microsoft’s fastest downloaded beta browser of all time").

Kevin Turner, the company’s CTO, also stated, "Business demand for our productivity and infrastructure products and cloud solutions is strong.  Office had a huge quarter, exceeding everyone’s expectations, and our roadmap for cloud productivity with Office 365 makes products like SharePoint, Exchange, Lync and Dynamics CRM even more attractive to our customers."

So all in all, it was a rather strong quarter for Microsoft.  The biggest source of disappointment appears to relate to net income being a touch down on a year-over-year basis.  And some folks are unhappy that the company released its earnings report a few minutes early.

Microsoft’s stock is now down 0.28 percent in after-hours trading.