This morning Credit Suisse First Boston downgraded it’s rating of Microsoft.
CSFB cut Microsoft to “neutral” from “outperform,” saying it’s unlikely the stock will do better than the rest of the sector this year, Briefing.com reported.
Currently shares of Microsoft are down $0.30 to $26.69.
Hey, want to see what Mount Everest standing on a parking lot looks like?
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i don’t understand how stocks work. where can you buy? at store? i want some apple stocks.
“….Swing low, sweet chariot…..”
Great take showing off Mt Everest! I’ll never stop kicking myself for not investing in Apple sooner.
Whenever I get enough cash to invest I stupidly waste it on a new computer, or pay off long-term debt. I’m no good at this stuff. Maybe I’ll buy some stock after the inevitable post-keynote drop.
To buy stock, you open a account at http://scottrade.com/ This a top named ( top 5 ) discount web based broker.
mac daily news take of the mt everest comparison isn’t totally accurate since MSFT pays dividends to it’s investors and apple does not. Anyone who understands dividend stocks would not try to make such a comparison.
MW- matter; it doesn’t really matter I guess since I am getting rich off my apple stock!!
If for whatever reason you don’t have the actual cash to buy AAPL, buy “Calls” (options, derivatives). It gives you the “option” to buy the actual stock at the “strike price” later.
Cheers!
BTW, Bill Gates is an ass.
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MDN Magic Word: “interest”. How appropriate
MDN – your chart comparison shows your ignorance.
If a few more downgrades happen my retirement account will do better. It is amazing, after 2.5 years of almost no growth in a stock it finally gets downgraded from “OUT PERFORM” to neutral.
Contrast this to analyst downgrading apple to neutral because they fear apple can not maintain a 600% grown in ipod sales and the rate of increase might drop to 400% growth or less.
Microsoft has been facing decreasing profitability for years, is having trouble keeping developers, is developing a reputation as a bungling operation while viruses and spyware rip their products apart. Their market share is actually decreasing (though slightly) yet the analyst say buy the stock. The fund managers do it and all our retirement accounts suffer.
However they will not buy Apple stock because apple is often rated as overweight by people that do not understand the tech. Apple is a computer manufacturer and will soon be the most highly valued one as Dell begins it’s decent. Apples stock is skyrocketing http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?t=5y&s=MSFT&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=AAPL and their products are flying off the shelves and yet, many analyst rate the stock as neutral. If Bill gates had dumped all his Microsoft stock 6 years ago and bought Apple stock he would be 6 times richer now.
If you look at MSFT, it is a solid company that has done better than a nasdaq in decline, so it has outperformed the market, but it has not been a growth stock for years and should have been downgraded 2 years ago. Apple is poised for incredible growth, yet these idiots can’t see it because they look at the 20 year track record where MSFT was a star and AAPL was a bust (relatively). They should be asking what have you done for me later and what do you have planned for the future.
Microsoft is pinning its hopes on a makeover to XP to look more like OS X to push it back to relevance while apple continues to push the bar further. No MSFT is not going to go under anytime soon because so many people depend on them, but they are a company in decline that has lost the little innovative capability they had (very little as they have made their fortune by selling cheap copies in high volume, not by pushing tech ahead. How long can they hold down the industry. No one likes them not even their best customer. Dell is begging Apple to sell OS X to them, MSFT could tank in a heart beat in it’s current state, I would downgrade it to sell!
Microsoft employees, those that are still stuck there, are “disappointed with the stock price, which has barely budged for three years, rendering many of their stock options out of the money… Employees long counted on [stock options] to bolster their salaries. Microsoft minted thousands of employee millionaires as the stock climbed 61,000% from its 1986 public offering to its peak in 2001. Now shares are trading exactly were they were seven years ago. Microsoft has doubled its payroll in that time, adding more than 30,000 new employees, not including attrition. That means more than half of Microsoft’s employees have received virtually no benefit from their stock holdings. Instead, they’re working for a paycheck and not much else.”
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_39/b3952001.htm
Microsoft stopped issuing stock options to new employees several years ago. They now offer outright stock grants, which are not dependent on share price appreciation to be worth something. However, they also don’t have the amont of upside that an underpriced option has.
Re: stockboy
It is true that the 0.36 dividend is an additional value. So if you bought $100 worth of MSFT 5 years ago it would be worth about $100 today and you would have about $9 worth of dividends so you would have around $109.
If you bought $100 worth of AAPL at the same time, it would be worth $800 now, of course you missed out on the $9 dividends so I guess that would really affect the height of that mountain wouldn’t it.
You were right though they were not comparing apples to apples – give MSFT a 9% boost and the look at it – can you see a big differance?
Sorry stock boy – i misread things – someone else made my point and i some how got it crossed with you. You did not explain what the chart was no good.
You just made the statement so it must be true.
An alternative anology -and perhaps a better one- would be to chart the market caps of AAPL and MSFT..
Which would show a hill that’s growing very nicely, versus a Mt Everest – that’s only just maintaining its height.
The difference is that the hill is being formed from new rock… the mountain is old and made from decaying rock that could turn to sand any day now…
Are we “normal folks” able to get into the pre- stock-trading?
If there are good news about AAPL or any stock they surge up during pre-trade.
Can you trade before 10 am through http://scottrade.com/?
or is pre-trade just for some rich Analysts and VIPs??
hope u answer if u know!
Can you trade before 10am??? What timezone ‘u tell me!’?
Eastern time? Yes, the market opens at 9:30am Eastern.
Hey, want to see what Mount Everest standing on a parking lot looks like?
That’s priceless
Bobby – Liked your first post. Was going to say much of what you said, but not nearly as eloquently.
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MSFT should be rated “sell before everybody else does.”
Talking about a stock that pays dividends: I know someone who had Coca Cola stock which paid regular dividends every year. She sold that stock in the $40’s and bought AAPL in the mid $30’s. She’s now doubled her money. Coca Cola never paid 100% dividends in any year she had the stock. She’s quite pleased with her trade, and only wished she had done it a few years earlier when i first told her AAPL was a bargain with a lot of growth potential (and was selling at $10).
re:greg
I also thought MDN take was priceless
whats priceless is bill gates doing a keynote and their stock getting down-graded. HAHAHAHAHAHA ahhhhhhhhh yessssss. thats piss funny.
Hmmm…dividends, that sounds like GE and utility stocks. Capital appreciation, that sounds like a growth company. Which do I prefer? I’m not old, and depending upon dividend payments for my rent, so I’ll take the growth stock.
MW: “farm” as in don’t bet the farm!
Bobby wrote:
“Microsoft has been facing decreasing profitability for years, is having trouble keeping developers, is developing a reputation as a bungling operation while viruses and spyware rip their products apart. “
…”I would downgrade it to sell!”
MSFT should be downgraded to strong sell. Why own such a clear loser?