The divergent performances of Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. in the wake of their latest earnings reports widened the spread between the two companies’ market values to the largest on record at more than $700 billion to close out last week.
Apple
AAPL,
finished Friday’s trading session with a $2.48 trillion valuation, while Microsoft
MSFT,
ended the week with a $1.76 trillion valuation. The $719.24 billion spread between those two market caps was the widest record and nearly as much as Tesla Inc.’s
TSLA,
entire market cap of $721.61 billion, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
The spread has narrowed a bit with Monday morning’s trading action, as Apple shares are off 1.8% and Microsoft shares are down 1.5%. Apple’s market value is now $698.40 billion larger than Microsoft’s, with that spread again similar to Tesla’s current valuation.
While Apple shares rallied 7.6% in Friday trading after the company posted a large revenue beat in its Mac segment and indicated that iPhone demand was strong despite supply challenges, Microsoft shares lost 7.7% Wednesday as the company’s most recent earnings report fueled concerns about cloud growth.
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Combined, Apple’s and Microsoft’s market caps made up 42% of the market cap of all Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
components as of Friday’s close.
Apple’s price-to-earnings ratio on a next-12-months basis is also higher than Microsoft’s in a somewhat rare occurrence. While the smartphone giant’s forward P/E has been higher than Microsoft’s during several days in September and October, it hadn’t been above Microsoft’s before those instances since January 2021, per Dow Jones Market Data, based on FactSet data.
Apple had a 24.48 P/E ahead of Monday’s open, while Microsoft’s was 23.25.
Shares of both names remain down on the year, however, with Microsoft’s stock off 31% over the course of 2022 and Apple’s off 14%. Together, Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc., and Meta Platforms Inc. have shed $3 trillion in market value so far this year.
