Microsoft Corp. is flirting with taking over the position of most valuable U.S. company for the first time in 539 trading days, briefly knocking Apple out of the spot in intraday action Thursday.
Microsoft Corp.
MSFT,
overtook Apple Inc.
AAPL,
in terms of valuation Thursday based on intraday stock moves, with Microsoft shares up 0.9% at one point and Apple’s stock down 1.1%. That gave Microsoft a valuation of $2.87 trillion and Apple a valuation of $2.86, though Apple is back on top later in morning activity.
If Microsoft ends the day with a higher valuation than Apple, it would reclaim the crown for the first time since Nov. 17, 2021, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Either Microsoft or Apple has held the title of most valuable U.S. company for virtually the entire past decade, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Amazon.com Inc. is the only other company to have occupied the position, for a brief period of 13 trading days during January and February of 2019.
Microsoft’s vault above Apple illustrates how the Redmond, Wash.-based company’s more enterprise-oriented business holds greater appeal with investors these days. Microsoft is seen as a key beneficiary of the artificial-intelligence revolution, as its cloud-computing and software businesses both play into the trend. Additionally, Wall Street seems less concerned about the resilience of enterprise spending on Microsoft offerings than it does about consumer spending on the sort of hardware that is Apple’s bread and butter.
Apple has posted four consecutive quarters of year-over-year revenue declines, reflecting more skittish consumer behavior as well as what some analysts say is a lack of recent innovation at the company. The latest iPhone line brought only incremental changes, and Apple hasn’t come out with a game-changing new product in years; its forthcoming Vision Pro headset looks impressive, but its $3,499 price tag might limit its financial impact to Apple.
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