Microsoft unseats Apple as most valuable company

Microsoft's victory comes after Apple posted a rare quarterly sales miss

Microsoft has reclaimed the title of world's most valuable company after surpassing Apple's market capitalization on Friday.

As of the time of publication, Microsoft has a market cap of approximately $2.48 trillion, while Apple's market cap now trails slightly behind at $2.47 trillion.

Shares of Microsoft are up approximately 51% year-to-date, while Apple is up more than 14% during the same time period.

Microsoft's victory comes after Apple posted a rare sales miss on Thursday amid supply chain issues and an ongoing chip shortage. Apple reported fourth-quarter sales of $83.36 billion, falling short of Wall Street’s projection for $84.85 billion. Earnings per share were $1.24, matching expectations.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said demand for Apple products was strong despite what he described as "larger than expected supply constraints." Cook said the supply issues cost the company an estimated $6 billion. The company reported iPhone revenue of $38.87 billion, falling short of the $41.51 billion that analysts expected. Despite the miss, Apple’s revenue marked a 29% year-over-year increase and established a record for its fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, Microsoft recently reported first-quarter net income of $20.51 billion, or $2.71 per share, while revenue rose 22% to $45.32 billion, beating Wall Street expectations of approximately $43.97 billion. Revenue from Intelligent Cloud, the tech giant's largest and fastest-growing segment, grew 31% to $17 billion, beating analyst expectations of $16.58 billion. Microsoft also noted a 166% surge in sales of its Xbox gaming consoles and accessories.

Apple and Microsoft have taken turns as the world's most valuable company over the last few years, with the latter last holding the most valuable company title in May 2020.

Apple went on to reclaim the title when it became the first company to reach a $2 trillion market cap in August 2020. Microsoft joined Apple in the $2 trillion club in June.