REDMOND, Wash. (AP) _ Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) on Wednesday reported fiscal second-quarter profit of $11.65 billion.

The Redmond, Washington-based company said it had profit of $1.51 per share.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.32 per share.

The software maker posted revenue of $36.91 billion in the period, which also beat Street forecasts. Ten analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $35.69 billion.

Microsoft shares have climbed nearly 7% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has increased slightly more than 1%. In the final minutes of trading on Wednesday, shares hit $168.16, a climb of 63% in the last 12 months.

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on MSFT at https://www.zacks.com/ap/MSFT

Automated Insights, source Associated Press News