For most investors, how much a stock's price changes over time is important. Not only can it impact your investment portfolio, but it can also help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.
FOMO, or the fear of missing out, also plays a role in investing, particularly with tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.
What if you'd invested in Microsoft (MSFT) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to MSFT for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?
Microsoft's Business In-Depth
With that in mind, let's take a look at Microsoft's main business drivers.
Microsoft Corporation is one of the largest broad-based technology providers in the world. The company dominates the PC software market with more than 73% of the market share for desktop operating systems.
The company’s Microsoft 365 application suite is one of the most popular productivity software globally. It is also one of the prominent public cloud providers that can deliver a wide variety of infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) solutions at scale.
Redmond, WA-based Microsoft’s products include operating systems, cross-device productivity applications, server applications, business solution applications, desktop and server management tools, software development tools and video games. Its software solutions and hardware devices are playing an important role in developing the metaverse.
The company designs and sells PCs, tablets, gaming and entertainment consoles, other intelligent devices, and related accessories. Through Azure, it offers cloud-based solutions that provide customers with software, services, platforms and content.
Microsoft reported revenues of $245.1 billion in fiscal 2024. The company reports operations under three segments: Productivity & Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud and More Personal Computing.
Productivity & Business Processes accounted for 31.7% of fiscal 2024 revenues. The segment offers productivity and collaboration tools and services including Office 365, Dynamics business solutions, Teams, Relationship Sales solution, Power Platform and LinkedIn.
Intelligent Cloud, which include Azure cloud services, contributed to 42.9% of fiscal 2024 revenues.
Microsoft closed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard on October 13, 2023 for $75.4 billion. Activision Blizzard has been integrated as a sibling division to Xbox Game Studios and ZeniMax Media.
More Personal Computing represented 25.3% of fiscal 2024 revenues. The segment comprises mainly the Windows, Gaming (Xbox hardware and Xbox software and services), Devices (Surface, PC accessories, and other intelligent devices) and Search (Bing and Microsoft Advertising) businesses.
Bottom Line
Anyone can invest, but building a successful investment portfolio requires research, patience, and a little bit of risk. So, if you had invested in Microsoft ten years ago, you're likely feeling pretty good about your investment today.
A $1000 investment made in May 2015 would be worth $8,946.25, or a 794.63% gain, as of May 5, 2025, according to our calculations. Investors should note that this return excludes dividends but includes price increases.
In comparison, the S&P 500 gained 169.73% and the price of gold went up 160.43% over the same time frame.
Analysts are anticipating more upside for MSFT.
Microsoft’s Q3 fiscal 2025 earnings and revenues beat estimates driven by strength in AI business and Copilot adoption backed by accelerating growth in Azure cloud infrastructure unit. Productivity and Business Processes revenues rose due to a strong adoption of Office 365 Commercial solutions. ARPU growth was driven by E5 as well as M365 Copilot. Intelligent Cloud revenues were driven by growth in Azure AI services and a rise in AI Copilot business. Focused execution drove non-AI services results aided by accelerated growth in the enterprise customer segment as well as some improvement in scale motions. Xbox content and services revenues benefited from stronger-than-expected performance in third-party and first-party content. However, higher operating expenses and spending on Azure amid stiff competition in the cloud space remain concerns.
Shares have gained 20.97% over the past four weeks and there have been 13 higher earnings estimate revisions for fiscal 2025 compared to none lower. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Microsoft Corporation (MSFT): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
Zacks Investment Research
