Microsoft Closes on Apple in Race for World's Most Valuable Listed Firm (bloomberg.com) 29
A blowout first quarter has brought Microsoft back into contention in the race for the world's most-valuable listed company. From a report: The software behemoth is less than $60 billion away from dethroning Apple for the first time since May 2020, based on a 3.1% gain in early U.S. trading. That gives Microsoft a market value of $2.40 trillion compared with $2.46 trillion for Apple. The stock was boosted after Microsoft reported estimate-topping results for an 11th straight quarter. Several analysts raised their price targets, saying the earnings were very strong across the board.
Let's see if Elon (Score:2)
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Cars also have pretty high per-unit costs, along with selling probably a couple thousand units per design.
Software costs you at worst printing a sheet of paper per license (and even that is by now outsourced to your customer) and you sell a few millions.
Re:Let's see if Elon (Score:4, Informative)
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This is why shysters focus on revenue. Look at how much money we made! You should invest!
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It is interesting that no carmakers are up there, considering that's what people spend the most on, after housing.
Wake up. Your car *is* housing. Or did you miss History? Don't worry, there'll be a remedial class very soon.
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Cars are commodity. If I have Honda and Toyota gives me discount, I will happily jump over and so would most (though not all) would do. On the other hand, you can do the same for MacOS to Windows to Linux. So the makers of MacOS and Windows can have net profit margin pretty high and can have huge marketshare. Cars have very low profit margin and hard to get high marketshare.
As we are seeing proprietary cars like Tesla like proprietary charging stations (have you Toyota only gas station?), auto-pilot feature
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Vehicles are relatively lower margin (they are priced high, but also cost quite a bit to produce) that the average household only buys about one a decade, and is on the front line for people to delay purchasing when there's an economic downturn.
Re: Let's see if Elon (Score:2)
Price/earnings ratio (Score:2)
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What's that, a tad over 2.5% effective annual interest? Seems fair for a low-risk investment.
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Seems fair for a low-risk investment.
While the fed's spigot remains open, Wall Street is no-risk for big "investors". It's raining money!
Re:Price/earnings ratio (Score:4, Informative)
They are high compared to their peers, but not crazy out of line.
PE for:
Google: 32.23 Microsoft: 40.28
Apple: 29.24 Cisco: 22.47
Wal-Mart: 41.68 GE: 59.5
McDonalds: 26.5 Tesla: 340.19
eBay: 4.13 Ford: 18.6
Disney: 278.49 AT&T: 211.70
Current S&P 500 PE Ratio: 28.83
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True, but the tech market, or even the market as a whole, may be overvalued, given the overwhelming likelihood of ongoing and significant inflation, and the subsequent necessary rise in interest rates.
Many people reading this don't remember the last time there was significant inflation in the U.S. (late 70s to mid 80s). It was not fun, nor was the aftermath. I'm expecting at least something similar in the near future, but probably worse.
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... the market as a whole, may be overvalued...
"May be"? The market is being fattened to the tune of 120 billion every month. Calling it "overvalued" is the utmost in subtlety..
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Whaddya mean, understand? They're milking it for every penny they can. I recommend everybody do the same, just know when to cash out. Or regular day trading is probably best, agricultural commodities, minerals, and maybe crypto too, what the hell?
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Neither Microsoft, nor most other publicly traded companies, have a solid track record of consistent growth in the kind of environment that results when law and order and free enterprise have all broken down, or in which hyperinflation, collapse of equity and bond markets, or total war are all very realistic possibilities.
This isn't a rant about Microsoft specifically. It's just that equity markets in general represent a huge risk right now. Some publicly traded companies will likely survive and thrive, j
The MacBook Pro release... (Score:3)
The MacBook Pro release should boost Apple's stock price significantly in the next quarter. So Microsoft has closed the gap, but Apple is set to widen it again.
And at the end of the day, who really cares who's #1? They're both worth more than most country's GDP.
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I don't think that should have an effect on the stock.
For one, their macOS systems are a relatively small portion of their financial results.
To the extent the product would make a difference, it's not some surprise product, it's an update to their product line. Perceived company value from that should already be baked into the share price, including some anticipation for any expected revenue bump that may result.
More to the point, it's comparing apples and oranges. Microsoft's devices business is even small
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That's inflation for you (Score:2)
Meh. Microsoft hasn't had a new product idea in years (no, Windows 11 doesn't count).