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 business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, risk, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends and profitability.
In the previous week, Apple had 83 more articles in the media than Microsoft. MarketBeat recorded 189 mentions for Apple and 106 mentions for Microsoft. Microsoft's average media sentiment score of 0.53 beat Apple's score of 0.32 indicating that Microsoft is being referred to more favorably in the media.
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.
Microsoft has a beta of 0.89, suggesting that its stock price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Apple has a beta of 1.26, suggesting that its stock price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500.
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, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
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.
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 72.55% of users gave Microsoft an outperform vote.
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 0.5%. Microsoft pays out 26.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Apple pays out 14.9% 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 presently has a consensus target price of $452.61, indicating a potential upside of 9.13%. Apple has a consensus target price of $204.11, indicating a potential upside of 11.51%. Given Apple's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Apple is more favorable than Microsoft.
Summary
Apple beats Microsoft on 12 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.
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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