MSFT vs. AAPL, AMZN, ORCL, CSCO, NOW, FTNT, AXON, QLYS, CVLT, and AI
Should you be buying Microsoft stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Microsoft include Apple (AAPL), Amazon.com (AMZN), Oracle (ORCL), Cisco Systems (CSCO), ServiceNow (NOW), Fortinet (FTNT), Axon Enterprise (AXON), Qualys (QLYS), Commvault Systems (CVLT), and C3.ai (AI).
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) are both large-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, valuation, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, earnings, risk, dividends, profitability and institutional ownership.
Microsoft pays an annual dividend of $3.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Apple pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Microsoft pays out 26.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Apple pays out 15.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.
Microsoft currently has a consensus target price of $457.91, suggesting a potential upside of 10.31%. Apple has a consensus target price of $205.59, suggesting a potential upside of 6.94%. Given Microsoft's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Microsoft is more favorable than Apple.
Microsoft has a beta of 0.89, suggesting that its share price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Apple has a beta of 1.26, suggesting that its share price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Microsoft has a net margin of 36.43% compared to Apple's net margin of 26.31%. Apple's return on equity of 148.33% beat Microsoft's return on equity.
Apple received 4086 more outperform votes than Microsoft when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 82.24% of users gave Apple an outperform vote while only 72.58% of users gave Microsoft an outperform vote.
Apple has higher revenue and earnings than Microsoft. Apple is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Microsoft, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
71.1% of Microsoft shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 60.4% of Apple shares are held by institutional investors. 0.0% of Microsoft shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Apple shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
In the previous week, Apple had 35 more articles in the media than Microsoft. MarketBeat recorded 107 mentions for Apple and 72 mentions for Microsoft. Microsoft's average media sentiment score of 0.81 beat Apple's score of 0.51 indicating that Microsoft is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Summary
Apple beats Microsoft on 11 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding MSFT and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NASDAQ and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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