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Market Cap of 5 Largest US Companies Up 36% in Most Recent Year
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The top five U.S. stocks by market cap have added an average of 36% to their value in the past 12 months. These same stocks have also boosted their share prices by an average of 40% in the same period.
Three of these firms reported quarterly results last week: Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), and Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN). The other two companies report results in the coming week: Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) after markets close on Wednesday, and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) after markets close on Thursday.
Here are some of the eye-popping numbers for each of these giants. We’ve listed the companies in market cap order at the closing stock price on Friday, October 27.
Apple
Market cap: $847.1 billion
12-month share price increase: 42.4% (1st)
Year-to-date share price increase: 40.8% (3rd)
When Apple reports earnings Thursday, analysts expect to see earnings per share (EPS) of $1.87, up from $1.50 in the year-ago quarter, and revenues of $50.79 billion, up 8.4% year over year. Last Friday was the first day for pre-orders of the iPhone X which begins shipping on this coming Friday. Shipment dates quickly rose to 5 to 6 weeks, testifying to the popularity of the new phone. Apple shares rose about 4.4% last week with most of the gain coming Friday.
Alphabet/Google
Market cap: $680.4 billion
12-month share price increase: 26.5% (5th)
Year-to-date share price increase: 30.4% (5th)
When Google parent Alphabet reported earnings last week, the firm posted EPS of $9.57, about 15% higher than analysts had estimated, and revenues totaled $27.77 billion. Alphabet stock added about 2.9% last week. Analysts raised price targets to an average of over $1,033 per share following the earnings report.
Microsoft
Market cap: $646 billion
12-month share price increase: 39.5% (2nd)
Year-to-date share price increase: 34.9% (4th)
Microsoft’s earnings per share (EPS) last quarter were $0.84 on revenues of $24.5 billion. A year ago the company reported EPS of $0.72 and $21.93 billion in revenues, and the consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters called for EPS of $0.72 on revenues of $23.56 billion. The stock price rose about 6.3% last week. Once again, analysts lifted price targets en masse.
Facebook
Market cap: $495.5 billion
12-month share price increase: 37.2% (3rd)
Year-to-date share price increase: 54.6% (1st)
When Facebook reports results next week, analysts expect to see EPS of $1.28 on revenues of $9.84 billion. In the same period last year the company posted EPS of $1.09 and revenues of $7 billion. That’s expected revenue growth of 40% and EPS growth of more than 9%. Facebook shares add 1.7% last week with a surge of 4.3% on Friday.
Amazon
Market cap: $467.1 billion
12-month share price increase: 34.5% (4th)
Year-to-date share price increase: 46.8% (2nd)
The e-commerce giant reported EPS of $0.52 on $43.7 billion in revenue, compared with consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters that called for $0.03 in EPS and $42.14 billion in revenue. Last year Amazon reported EPS of $0.52 and $32.71 billion in revenue. The company’s share price jumped 12% last week and more than 13% on Friday. Skeptics may have become believers as analyst reaction illustrates.
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