Microsoft posted a solid quarterly earnings and revenue beat , but slowing growth in its Azure cloud computing business wasn’t enough to exceed investors’ lofty expectations, weighing shares down 12% on Thursday. However, Wall Street analysts criticized the sell-off. Microsoft’s earnings came in at an adjusted $4.14 per share, exceeding the $3.97 analysts polled by LSEG had expected. The firm posted revenue of $81.27 billion, also higher than the $80.27 consensus estimate. Microsoft’s current-quarter guidance also met LSEG consensus expectations. But shares were dragged lower after revenue from Azure and other cloud services grew at 39%, lower than the 40% growth from Microsoft’s fiscal first quarter. Analysts polled by StreetAccount and CBNC had respectively forecast this growth to come in at 39.4% and 38.9%. While analysts across Wall Street acknowledged this miss in cloud growth, they also remarked that market expectations appear too high. Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss said…