AAPL vs. MSFT, GOOG, GOOGL, DELL, SMCI, OSS, SCKT, TSM, NVDA, and META
Should you be buying Apple stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Apple include Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOG), Alphabet (GOOGL), Dell Technologies (DELL), Super Micro Computer (SMCI), One Stop Systems (OSS), Socket Mobile (SCKT), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM), NVIDIA (NVDA), and Meta Platforms (META). These companies are all part of the "computer and technology" sector.
Apple vs.
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 businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, community ranking, media sentiment, risk, earnings, dividends, valuation, profitability and analyst recommendations.
Microsoft pays an annual dividend of $2.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Apple pays an annual dividend of $0.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Microsoft pays out 29.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Apple pays out 15.1% 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 has raised its dividend for 19 consecutive years and Apple has raised its dividend for 11 consecutive years. Microsoft is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Apple received 4096 more outperform votes than Microsoft when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 83.05% of users gave Apple an outperform vote while only 73.91% of users gave Microsoft an outperform vote.
In the previous week, Apple had 41 more articles in the media than Microsoft. MarketBeat recorded 70 mentions for Apple and 29 mentions for Microsoft. Apple's average media sentiment score of 0.31 beat Microsoft's score of 0.17 indicating that Apple is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Microsoft has a net margin of 34.37% compared to Apple's net margin of 25.31%. Apple's return on equity of 160.90% beat Microsoft's return on equity.
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.
69.3% of Microsoft shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 57.7% of Apple shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.0% of Microsoft shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Apple shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Microsoft presently has a consensus price target of $300.64, indicating a potential upside of 21.47%. Apple has a consensus price target of $176.30, indicating a potential upside of 19.03%. Given Microsoft's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Microsoft is more favorable than Apple.
Microsoft has a beta of 0.92, indicating that its stock price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Apple has a beta of 1.25, indicating that its stock price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Apple beats Microsoft on 12 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.
New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding AAPL and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Media Sentiment Over Time
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.
