Due to its poor performance at the beginning of 2024, Apple's market value decreased by over $160 billion, putting its position as the world's most valuable company at risk. If the downturn continues, Apple's market value may be overtaken by Microsoft.
Since July 2022, Apple has been the world's highest listed company by market value, with a market value exceeding $3 trillion in the middle of last year, becoming the first company to achieve this milestone.
However, as two institutions downgraded Apple's rating, the company closed down for three consecutive trading days this week, with a cumulative decline of over 5.5% and a market value evaporation of $165.1 billion.
After Friday's opening, Apple's stock price rebounded slightly. As of press release, Apple's stock price rose 0.10%, with a market value of $2.83 trillion. Microsoft's stock price rose 0.57%, with a market value of $2.75 trillion.
Since the beginning of the year, Microsoft's stock price has also declined, but this is mainly due to the overall downturn of the market, and the market has recently reduced its bets on the Federal Reserve's interest rate cut this year.
Piper Sandler lowered Apple's rating from "overweight" to "neutral" on Thursday, with a target price of $205, citing concerns that iPhone inventory levels and sales growth rates may peak. On Tuesday of this week, Barclays directly downgraded Apple's rating to "sell".
Apple's stock price rose nearly 50% last year, while Microsoft's stock price rose nearly 60% last year, mainly driven by the trend of artificial intelligence (AI). As the largest shareholder of chat robot ChatGPT development company OpenAI, Microsoft has invested approximately $13 billion in the company, holding a 49% stake.
Microsoft won the world's highest market value company title for the first time in 1998. In 2010, with the emergence of the iPhone, Apple surpassed Microsoft in market value and became the world's largest technology giant for the first time. In recent years, Apple and Microsoft have taken turns becoming the world's most valuable companies.