Last week, the two tech titans had what you might call a photo
finish: Decent quarterly results, with double-digit growth in some
product categories, but revenue that was a tad lighter than Wall Street
had expected and profits only pennies better than predicted.
But the disappointment with Apple (ticker: AAPL) was substantially greater on Wednesday night, after it reported. Its shares fell as much as 11% in late trading, and ended the week down 12%, at $439.88. Microsoft (MSFT), in contrast, rose by 1% following its Thursday report and ended the week at $27.88, up 2.3%.
That is because Microsoft is no stranger to disappointment, whereas Apple is. Microsoft has for quite some time now been pestered to do something with its cash pile, as its shares have generally languished. The 10-year appreciation in share price for Microsoft is 12%, vastly trailing the S&P 500's 63% move up over the same span.
Microsoft's cash totaled $68 billion at the end of the fiscal second quarter. We've written in this space about how investors and analysts have suggested that the software maker borrow against that cash to increase its dividend dramatically or do much larger buybacks.
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But the disappointment with Apple (ticker: AAPL) was substantially greater on Wednesday night, after it reported. Its shares fell as much as 11% in late trading, and ended the week down 12%, at $439.88. Microsoft (MSFT), in contrast, rose by 1% following its Thursday report and ended the week at $27.88, up 2.3%.
That is because Microsoft is no stranger to disappointment, whereas Apple is. Microsoft has for quite some time now been pestered to do something with its cash pile, as its shares have generally languished. The 10-year appreciation in share price for Microsoft is 12%, vastly trailing the S&P 500's 63% move up over the same span.
Microsoft's cash totaled $68 billion at the end of the fiscal second quarter. We've written in this space about how investors and analysts have suggested that the software maker borrow against that cash to increase its dividend dramatically or do much larger buybacks.
Read More