MSFT vs. AAPL, NVDA, GOOG, GOOGL, AMZN, 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), Alphabet (GOOG), Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon.com (AMZN), Meta Platforms (META), Oracle (ORCL), Cisco Systems (CSCO), International Business Machines (IBM), and ServiceNow (NOW).
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) are both large-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, community ranking, valuation, profitability, risk, earnings, institutional ownership and media sentiment.
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 1.27, suggesting that its share price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500.
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.
In the previous week, Microsoft had 37 more articles in the media than Apple. MarketBeat recorded 162 mentions for Microsoft and 125 mentions for Apple. Microsoft's average media sentiment score of 0.68 beat Apple's score of 0.34 indicating that Microsoft is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Microsoft presently has a consensus price target of $452.61, indicating a potential upside of 11.39%. Apple has a consensus price target of $203.05, indicating a potential upside of 19.94%. Given Apple's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Apple is more favorable than Microsoft.
Microsoft pays an annual dividend of $3.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Apple pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Microsoft pays out 26.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Apple pays out 15.0% 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.
71.1% of Microsoft shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 60.4% 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 hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Microsoft has a net margin of 36.43% compared to Apple's net margin of 26.16%. Apple's return on equity of 156.04% beat Microsoft's return on equity.
Apple received 4078 more outperform votes than Microsoft when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 82.24% of users gave Apple an outperform vote while only 72.55% of users gave Microsoft an outperform vote.
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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