Friday saw the changing of the guard at the top of the list of most valuable US companies confirmed after shares in Microsoft surged into record territory Friday and pushed the veteran software giant’s market cap above the $US1 trillion mark.
The surge saw Microsoft’s value jump by more than $US100 billion, over previous trillionaire leaders in Apple and Amazon and Apple which are now well below their record closes.
Microsoft shares ran up 2.8% on Friday to close at &|$US131.40 to top the stock’s previous the April 30 record close of $US130.60 (the last time the company topped the trillion dollar level).
Friday’s close lifted Microsoft’s market cap to $US1.008 trillion. At Friday’s close, Amazon’s market cap was $US886.1 billion and Apple was valued at $US873.9 billion.
With 7.66 billion shares outstanding according to the latest quarterly filing in April, Microsoft becomes a trillion-dollar company when the share price rises above $US130.50.
The shares jumped 9.7% from Tuesday to Friday of last week.
Meanwhile, Amazon’s stock was up 2.6% but was 11.8% below its September 4, 2018 record close of $2,039.51 and Apple shares climbed 2.5%, but remain 18.2% below their October 2018 record of $US232.07.
Alphabet (Google) shares closed at $US1,066.40 on Friday for a market value of $US725 billion – up 2% for the day and down more than 3% for the week. Facebook shares closed at$US173.35, up 3% on the day but down more than 2% for the week.
And by the way, shares in Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffett’s company and an investor in Apple and Amazon) closed at $US309,265 on Friday – up 0.4% on the day and more than 4% for the week.
It’s market value rose to $US503.34 billion, thereby overtaking Facebook and relegating it to 6th spot on the most valuable list.
US analysts say that Microsoft’s rise is being helped by it not being mentioned in leaks about US Justice Department probes of Amazon, Google (Alphabet and Facebook for claimed antitrust and other alleged breaches.
Microsoft shares have rallied 29.5% year to date, while Amazon’s stock has rallied 19.8%, Apple shares have advanced 20.4% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 11.5%.
