Microsoft has become the third United States (US) company to pass a market cap of $1 trillion (an eye boggling 101.4 trillion Kenyan Shillings), helping the company join Amazon and Apple in the coveted $1 trillion upper class, ahead of its rival Google.
The software and tech giant passed the milestone briefly on Thursday April 25th 2019, after a jump in its stock price following the company’s very strong fiscal earnings in Q3 (thanks to Surface, Windows and Xbox), with Microsoft reporting a revenue of $30.6 billion (3.1 trillion Kenyan Shillings) and a net income of $8.8 billion (892.6 billion Kenyan Shillings).
Microsoft’s stock price opened at $130 (13,188.47 Kenyan Shillings) per share, which was up around four percent from the $125 (12,681.22 Kenyan Shillings) closing price on Wednesday April 24th, 2019.
The stock price rose further to $131.37 (13,327.46 Kenyan Shillings), during trading hours of the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ) on Thursday.
The valuation, helped Microsoft take over from Apple as the world’s most valuable company, after briefly passing Apple back in November 2018.
This was short lived however, as fluctuations eventually brought it down to $129.15 (13,099.01 Kenyan Shillings), which led to a market cap of an estimated $990 billion (100.4 trillion Kenyan Shillings)
Microsoft’s stock’s ‘massive’ push, was also as a result of its cloud growth. The software leader, had been very dedicated in pushing its cloud products in recent times, with the company’s aim being to catch up to Amazon’s AWS dominance.
Microsoft’s latest earnings also revealed that the three main branches the company splits its businesses up into are all doing very well and are also roughly contributing the same amount of revenue this quarter (which is around 30 percent each).
- Azure cloud, server products, and enterprise services = $9.7 billion (983.97 billion Kenyan Shillings) in revenue.
- Office, LinkedIn, and Dynamics = $10.2 billion (1.03 trillion Kenyan Shillings) in revenue.
- Windows, Xbox, and Surface = $10.7 billion (1.08 trillion Kenyan Shillings) in revenue.
Microsoft’s Azure, is currently second behind Amazon for cloud services, placing it ahead of Google’s own offerings.
While the $1 trillion valuation is something that investors pay very close attention to, Microsoft’s Chief Marketing Officer; Chris Capossela claims, it is not something that Microsoft cares about.
According to GeekWire, while speaking at an event, he said “This is a metric that nobody on the senior leadership team is tracking,” further adding that “Nobody is sitting around high-fiving when the stock hits some new high.”.
In September 2018, Amazon hit the 1$ trillion mark, five weeks after Apple did so in early August 2018 after also posting a very strong quarterly report.
Analysts cited the company’s ever diversifying portfolio as a value driver, as it (Amazon) launched into the grocery industry with its purchase of Whole Foods Markets, while also rounding out its hardware and logistics segments with its last mile deliveries, as well as the company’s constant forward push in advertising, aimed at challenging Facebook and Google.
