Market Cap of 5 Largest US Companies Up 36% in Most Recent Year

Investing

Published: October 29, 2017 9:22 am

Last Updated: April 28, 2020 1:01 am

Over the past 12 months, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite have both risen just over 29%. The S&P 500 index is up more than 21%. It seems that every day brings a new record high for one of the major equity indexes and it sometimes seems as if the party may go on forever.

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.