The market capitalization of Microsoft, a U.S. IT giant, surpassed $2 trillion at one point during the market on the 22nd (local time). It is the second time that a U.S. listed company has joined the “$2 trillion Club” after Apple in August last year.
Microsoft shares rose more than 1% to $265.79 on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) earlier in the day. The stock price should be $265.55 for Microsoft to reach $2 trillion in market capitalization, exceeding that. However, the closing price fell slightly to $265.51 and closed at $1.99 trillion. Although it was a one-time trading day, Microsoft became the second company to surpass $2 trillion in the New York stock market after Apple. Considering the recent strong mood in tech stocks, it is expected to surpass $2 trillion in closing prices soon.
It was in April 2019 that Microsoft exceeded $1 trillion in market capitalization. In other words, it has doubled its size in more than two years. Considering that it took 33 years to reach $1 trillion since the company’s listing, foreign media explain that it is surprisingly fast.
This is due to the company’s second heyday last year with a special outbreak of coronavirus infection. As telework increased due to the spread of infectious diseases, demand for cloud computing, game services, and office software increased rapidly, CNN said. The stock price has also soared 64% since March last year when Covid-19 began.
In fact, according to quarterly earnings released by Microsoft in April, sales in the first quarter of this year rose 19% compared to the same period last year to $41.7 billion. At the time, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella emphasized that digital application curve has not slowed down during the year of pandemic.
Prospects for future are also bright. Bloomberg’s data tally showed that more than 90% of analysts at financial firms offered “buy” investment opinions to Microsoft. Logan Perk, an analyst at financial advisory firm Edward D Johnson & Co., said that MS is showing strong and sustainable growth as it participates in investors’ preferred markets.
Other IT companies are also on the verge of joining the Group 2 club. Amazon’s market capitalization stands at $1.77 trillion and Google’s parent company Alphabet’s market capitalization stands at $1.67 trillion, respectively.