MSFT Microsoft Corporation

By Stephen Grocer 

For more than 13 years -- from the dot-com bust to the start of 2014 -- Microsoft's shares and market value had stagnated.

That is no longer the case. On Friday, Microsoft shares jumped 4.3% to a record after a positive earnings report. That pushed the software giant's market capitalization to $464.14 billion. Since Satya Nadella was named chief executive officer of Microsoft on Feb. 4, 2014, the company has added $162 billion in market value.

The increase in Microsoft's market value comes as investors have flocked to the shares of the biggest technology companies in recent years. Investors view the tech giants as having built virtually unassailable franchises that generate massive sales, while also returning cash to shareholders through buybacks and dividends.

Apple Inc., Google parent Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc., along with Microsoft are the five biggest U.S.-listed companies by market value.

In fact, Microsoft's market-cap gain since Feb. 4, 2014, is the smallest of the group. Over that period, the market values of Microsoft's rivals have risen between $175 billion for Apple and $240 billion for Google.

Tech's dominance of the market-cap rankings follows its rocky start to the year. The S&P 500 tech sector was among the hardest hit during the selloff to start 2016 and spent much of the first quarter in the red.

The sector is up 11% on the year, and much of that gain have come since the end of the second quarter. Since June 30, tech stocks have rallied 12%, led by the group's biggest companies.

Microsoft is up 16.5% over that period, while Apple, Google and Facebook have gained 22%, 17% and 16%, respectively. Amazon, which isn't part of the S&P 500's tech sector, is up 14% since June 30.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 24, 2016 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)

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