Technology

By Philip van Doorn Microsoft is expected to keep putting up strong numbers, while Apple turns into a slow-grower. Apple Inc. has long been the most valuable U.S. company, but Microsoft Corp. seems poised to overtake it. A look back at the companies’ financial performance and a look ahead at expected revenue and profits make the case that Apple is no longer a growth stock and that Microsoft is the better long-term investment. Late Friday morning, Apple (AAPL) remained in the top spot with a market capitalization of $2.893 trillion, just ahead of Microsoft (MSFT) at $2.884 trillion. Apple’s stock was down 3.4% for 2024, while Microsoft was up 3.1% for the new year. Read: Apple stock looks expensive vs. the rest of the ‘Magnificent Seven’ P/E valuation Here’s a quick comparison of total returns (with dividends reinvested) for the stocks, and for the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY,

Piper Sandler analyst Brent Bracelin reiterated Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) with an Overweight and a $455 price target. After attending several developer sessions at the Microsoft AI event in San Francisco today, the analyst remained encouraged by the momentum around the most mature AI products (GitHub Copilot and Azure AI) but felt the new 3-month-old M365 Copilot remains in the early enterprise adoption phase. Microsoft remained his favorite AI All-Star stock, but tactically, after the 57% move in 2023, it might need further AI proof points and time to grow into the premium multiple over the next 3-6 months. Regardless, Microsoft has a first-mover advantage in AI that makes this a core growth holding. GitHub Copilot Enterprise (scheduled to GA in February) features enough compelling enhancements to justify the $39/month price point (vs. GitHub Copilot individual pricing at $10/month and business version at $19/month). The number of GitHub Copilot users has scaled quickly to

By Eric J. Savitz Microsoft edged past Apple Friday to reclaim the title of the world’s most valuable public company. The software giant now has a valuation of $2.89 trillion, slightly ahead of Apple at $2.87 trillion. Microsoft has been gradually closing the gap. Over the last 12 months, its shares have rallied 62.9%, versus a 39.4% gain for Apple. So far in 2024, Microsoft shares are 3.3% higher, while Apple is off 3.4%. Microsoft’s valuation briefly exceeded Apple’s market cap on an intraday basis earlier this week, before falling back. Apple had spent more than 500 days as the stock market’s most valued company. Microsoft last held the top spot on a closing basis in November 2021. The emergence of the artificial intelligence software boom has been a boost to Microsoft shares. The company has been aggressively rolling out Copilot AI software across its portfolio, the Azure cloud business

Piper Sandler analyst Brent Bracelin reiterates Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) with a Overweight and maintains $455 price target.