Microsoft briefly tops Apple as world’s most valuable company

Microsoft on Thursday briefly overtook Apple as the world’s most valuable company for the first time since 2021 after the iPhone maker’s shares made a weak start to the year on growing concerns over demand.

Microsoft’s shares have risen sharply since last year thanks to the early lead the company has taken in generative artificial intelligence (AI) through an investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. They were up 0.7% on Thursday, giving Microsoft a market value of $2.865-trillion.

The stock rose as much as 2% earlier in the session and Microsoft was briefly worth $2.903 trillion.

Shares of Apple were 0.9% lower, giving the company a market capitalisation of $2.871-trillion. Microsoft and Apple have jostled for top spot over the years.

“It was inevitable that Microsoft would overtake Apple since Microsoft is growing faster and has more to benefit from the generative AI revolution,” said DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria.

Microsoft has incorporated OpenAI’s technology across its suite of productivity software, a move that helped spark a rebound in its cloud-computing business in the July-September quarter.

Apple, meanwhile, has been grappling with weakening demand, including for the iPhone, its biggest cash cow. Demand in China, a major market, has slumped as the country’s economy makes a slow recovery from the pandemic and a resurgent Huawei chips away at its market share.

“China could be a drag on performance over the coming years,” brokerage Redburn Atlantic said in a client note on Wednesday, downgrading Apple’s shares to “neutral”.

At least three of the 41 analysts covering Apple have lowered their ratings since the start of 2024.

The Cupertino, California-based company has fallen 3.3% in January as of last close, compared with a 1.8% rise in Microsoft.

Both the stocks are expensive in terms of their share price-to-earnings (PE) ratio, a common method of valuing publicly listed companies.

Apple is trading at a forward p:e of 28, well above its average of 19 over the past 10 years, according to LSEG data. Microsoft is trading about 31-times forward earnings, above its 10-year average of 24.

Shares of Apple, the market capitalisation of which peaked at $3.081-trillion on December 14, ended 2023 with a gain of 48%. That was lower than the 57% rise posted by Microsoft.

Microsoft has briefly taken the lead over Apple as the most valuable company a handful of times since 2018, including in 2021 when concerns about Covid-driven supply chain shortages hit the iPhone maker’s stock price.

Currently, Wall Street is more positive on Microsoft. The company has no “sell” rating and nearly 90% of the brokerages covering the company recommend buying the stock.

Apple has two “sell” ratings and only two-thirds of the analysts covering the company rate it a “buy”.

Reuters