November 1, 2021
Apple surrendered the top spot as the world’s most valuable publicly traded company to technology giant Microsoft Corp on Friday after shares in the iPhone maker fell about 2%.
Apple suffered a US$6 billion drop in revenue in the fourth quarter due to ongoing global supply chain bottlenecks, which led to lower-than-expected growth. Apple CEO Tim Cook expressed more pessimism for the current Christmas quarter.
Apple shares fell 1.8% to $149.80, giving the technology giant a market capitalization of $2.48 trillion, while Microsoft shares rose 2.2% to a record high of $331.62, ending the session with a market capitalization of about $2.49 trillion.
Apple, which has repurchased $421.7 billion worth of shares in recent years, launched a massive $90 billion share buyback in April last year, leading to a steadily shrinking outstanding stock pool as the technology giant closed its fourth fiscal quarter with $16.4 billion worth of shares.
Microsoft shares have risen an impressive 49% this year as revenue from its cloud-based services has continued to grow. Apple shares have gained 13% so far this year.
For more information, you may view the original story from Reuters.
