MSFT vs. AAPL, NVDA, AMZN, GOOG, GOOGL, META, ORCL, CSCO, IBM, and NOW
Should you be buying Microsoft stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Microsoft include Apple (AAPL), NVIDIA (NVDA), Amazon.com (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOG), Alphabet (GOOGL), Meta Platforms (META), Oracle (ORCL), Cisco Systems (CSCO), International Business Machines (IBM), and ServiceNow (NOW).
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) are both large-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, community ranking, risk, profitability, institutional ownership, media sentiment, dividends, earnings and analyst recommendations.
In the previous week, Apple had 48 more articles in the media than Microsoft. MarketBeat recorded 153 mentions for Apple and 105 mentions for Microsoft. Apple's average media sentiment score of 0.63 beat Microsoft's score of 0.36 indicating that Microsoft is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Apple has a beta of 1.29, meaning that its stock price is 29% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Microsoft has a beta of 0.89, meaning that its stock price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Microsoft has a net margin of 36.27% compared to Microsoft's net margin of 26.16%. Microsoft's return on equity of 156.04% beat Apple'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.
58.5% of Apple shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 69.2% of Microsoft shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of Apple shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.0% of Microsoft shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Apple pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Microsoft pays an annual dividend of $3.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Apple pays out 15.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Microsoft pays out 27.1% 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. Apple has increased its dividend for 12 consecutive years and Microsoft has increased its dividend for 22 consecutive years. Microsoft is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Apple currently has a consensus target price of $205.27, indicating a potential upside of 17.08%. Microsoft has a consensus target price of $415.00, indicating a potential downside of 0.79%. Given Microsoft's higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Apple is more favorable than Microsoft.
Apple received 4092 more outperform votes than Microsoft when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 82.27% of users gave Apple an outperform vote while only 72.43% of users gave Microsoft an outperform vote.
Summary
Apple beats Microsoft on 12 of the 22 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.
Skip ChartThis 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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