Microsoft has breached the $500 billion mark in terms of market value for the first time since 2000, as the company continues to beat expectations by Wall Street analysts on its quarterly revenues and profit.
The last time that Microsoft had a market value of $500 billion was back in March 2000, when the company was valued at about $550 billion.
Microsoft Beats Wall Street Expectations
Fueled by strong growth in its cloud services and its Office platform, Microsoft was able to beat Wall Street analyst expectations on profit and revenue for the second quarter of its fiscal year, spanning the months of October to December.
Microsoft booked revenue for the period of $26.06 billion, which is a 2 percent increase compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Operating income for the quarter was reported as $8.15 billion, while net income was said to be $6.52 billion. This is the seventh time over the last eight quarters that Microsoft was able to exceed what Wall Street expected for its quarterly revenue and profit.
After Microsoft released its earnings report for the quarter, the price of shares in the company increased by as high as 2.1 percent, reaching an all-time high of $65.64 in early trading that raised its market value to $510.37 billion.
Microsoft is still lagging behind rivals Apple and Alphabet, which boast of market values of $642 billion and $570 billion, respectively, but the outlook for the company is as bright as ever.
Nadella Leads Microsoft To Growth
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who took over the world's biggest software company almost three years ago, has been at the forefront of its reinvigoration. Nadella's efforts have built more credibility in Microsoft's efforts in areas such as cloud-based services.
When Nadella was ushered in as the company's new CEO in February 2014, Microsoft had a market value of almost half of what it has right now at about $315 billion with stocks trading for around $34 per share. With Microsoft now being brought back up to over $500 in market value, Nadella's mantra for the company of "cloud first, mobile first" is seemingly working to keep current investors happy and outsiders looking to grab Microsoft stocks.
"The pieces are falling into place as we are starting to see an important shift in the model, with improving profitability in growth segments," said an analyst of RBC Capital Markets in a note. At least 11 brokerages have increased their price targets in Microsoft stock, increasing the median price target from $68 to $68.50. Also, of 37 analysts that are covering Microsoft stock, 27 have rated it as "buy" or higher.
Other Microsoft News
Microsoft VP of security Bharat Shah recently said that the company will continue to make investments of over $1 billion annually on cybersecurity research and development, showing how important it is to Microsoft.
Microsoft is also busy preparing the Creators Update for Windows 10, which will enhance the operating system's capabilities with Cortana, 3D, and virtual reality technologies, along with adding a new Game Mode to make video games perform better on the platform.
