Barring any further stock market shocks, Microsoft will finish the year ahead of Apple and Amazon as America’s most valuable publicly-quoted company, despite never making it to $1 trillion.
Microsoft is enjoying a little glory, having unexpectedly regained its position as America’s most valuable publicly-quoted company – albeit, I think, temporarily. It lost out to Apple and then Amazon in the race to be valued at more than a trillion dollars, and it hasn’t exactly risen to the top. In fact, in the last quarter, Microsoft’s value slumped by more than $100 billion.
What’s happened is that the value of Microsoft shares fell less than those of other leading technology companies.
As you will have noticed, American stock prices are undergoing a “correction” after a bull run that lasted almost a decade. Microsoft shares have declined along with the rest of the market. It’s just that shares in members of the FAANG group have fallen further.
Also: Can’t tell your FANG from your FAAMG? And should you be worried?
FAANG stands for Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google (ie Alphabet). Jim Cramer from the Cramer’s Mad Money TV program originally picked out the FANG group of companies in 2013 as rapidly-growing stocks to watch. Microsoft wasn’t part of it, because its stock price had spent a decade going nowhere, even though Steve Ballmer had roughly tripled revenues and doubled profits after becoming CEO in 2000.
