Microsoft's stock closed above Apple's for the first time since 2021 on Friday, making it the world's most valuable company, as demand concerns hit the iPhone maker's stock price.
On Friday, Apple rose 0.2% and Microsoft rose 1%. This brings Microsoft's market capitalization to $2.887 trillion, an all-time high, according to LSEG data. Apple's market capitalization, calculated based on Thursday's filing data, was $2.875 trillion.
Concerns about smartphone demand have pushed Apple stock down 3% so far in 2024 after rising 48% last year. Microsoft is up about 3% since the beginning of the year after soaring 57% in 2023 on a bull run driven in part by its lead in generative artificial intelligence through its investment in ChatGPT maker OpenAI.
According to LSEG, Apple's market capitalization peaked at $3.081 trillion on December 14th.
Microsoft is incorporating OpenAI's technology into its suite of productivity software, which helped fuel a recovery in its cloud computing business in the July-September quarter. His AI leadership at the company has also created an opportunity to challenge Google's dominance in web search.
Meanwhile, Apple is grappling with sluggish demand, including for its cash cow iPhone. Demand in China, a major market, is sluggish as the Chinese economy has been slow to recover from the coronavirus pandemic and a revived Huawei is eating away at market share.
Sales of Apple's Vision Pro mixed reality headset will begin in the US on February 2nd, marking Apple's biggest product launch since the iPhone in 2007. However, UBS estimated in a report this week that Vision Pro sales are “relatively insignificant” to Apple. Earnings per share in 2024.
Since 2018, Microsoft briefly overtook Apple as the most valuable company, and most recently in 2021, when concerns about pandemic-related supply chain shortages affected the iPhone maker's stock price.
In its latest quarterly report in November, Apple gave a holiday quarter sales forecast that was lower than Wall Street's expectations due to weak demand for iPads and wearables.
Analysts on average expect Apple's December quarter sales to rise 0.7% to $117.9 billion, according to LSEG. As a result, sales will increase year-on-year for the first time in four quarters. Apple announced its financial results on February 1st.
Analysts expect Microsoft to report a 16% increase in revenue to $61.1 billion in the coming weeks due to continued growth in its cloud business.
Source: www.theguardian.com
