Microsoft Isn't Cheap But Still A Great Buy
by Gregory Stuckey
Microsoft (MSFT) isn't exactly cheap but is still a strong value
Microsoft is famous for its operating system Windows and the Microsoft Office Suite of programs, both of which dominate the PC market. At approximately 90% market share Windows is the defacto operating system for the world market of PCs. Microsoft has a market cap of approximately $241 billion. I have read several articles claiming Microsoft's valuation is historically cheap. My research on Microsoft shows me there is a great bit of value in this stock and a lot of potential for continued growth in earning, which we will go through later in the article, but Microsoft is not cheap as I define it. In June Microsoft had a P/E multiple of 10.6 but on July 5th that multiple jumped to 15.35 and stayed about 14 until today which it is at approximately 16. The 5-year P/E average for Microsoft is 12.76 so a P/E of 16 is significantly above that metric. Now for the industry these numbers are low and the argument could be made that Microsoft is cheap relative to its competitors. The Software Industry's average P/E is 35, more than double Microsoft's current P/E, Price/Sales for Microsoft is 3.32 while the industry is 8.11, and Price/Book is 3.5 for Microsoft and 4.92 for the industry. A case certainly could be made that Microsoft is cheap for the industry. I would not disagree but it is not cheap for Microsoft which I think is more important. It might be that Microsoft is 20 times the size of the average in the industry that suppresses its valuation metrics compared to the average of the industry. I would doubt Microsoft will ever earn a PE multiple as high as 35 so I exclude this comparison from my thought process. Microsoft is not cheap for Microsoft but does it provide value to shareholders through potential earnings growth and dividends. read more »
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