MSFT vs. ORCL, NOW, FTNT, AXON, CVLT, QLYS, AI, PRGS, SAP, and CRM
Should you be buying Microsoft stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Microsoft include Oracle (ORCL), ServiceNow (NOW), Fortinet (FTNT), Axon Enterprise (AXON), Commvault Systems (CVLT), Qualys (QLYS), C3.ai (AI), Progress Software (PRGS), SAP (SAP), and Salesforce (CRM).
Microsoft vs.
Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) are both large-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, profitability, earnings, media sentiment, dividends, analyst recommendations, community ranking and institutional ownership.
Oracle has a beta of 1.22, suggesting that its stock price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Microsoft has a beta of 1, suggesting that its stock price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.
In the previous week, Microsoft had 143 more articles in the media than Oracle. MarketBeat recorded 238 mentions for Microsoft and 95 mentions for Oracle. Oracle's average media sentiment score of 1.11 beat Microsoft's score of 0.91 indicating that Oracle is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Oracle currently has a consensus price target of $178.65, suggesting a potential upside of 33.16%. Microsoft has a consensus price target of $505.41, suggesting a potential upside of 29.17%. Given Oracle's higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Oracle is more favorable than Microsoft.
Oracle pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Microsoft pays an annual dividend of $3.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Oracle pays out 46.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Microsoft pays out 26.7% 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 23 consecutive years.
Microsoft has higher revenue and earnings than Oracle. Oracle is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Microsoft, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Microsoft received 1090 more outperform votes than Oracle when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 72.81% of users gave Microsoft an outperform vote while only 69.71% of users gave Oracle an outperform vote.
Microsoft has a net margin of 35.43% compared to Oracle's net margin of 21.16%. Oracle's return on equity of 133.25% beat Microsoft's return on equity.
42.4% of Oracle shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 71.1% of Microsoft shares are owned by institutional investors. 42.2% of Oracle shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.0% of Microsoft shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Summary
Microsoft beats Oracle on 14 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding {thisCompany.Symbol} 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.
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This page (NASDAQ:MSFT) was last updated on 4/14/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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