Analysts are now expecting Microsoft to reach $1 trillion market value by the end of 2019 or in early 2020

Jan 27, 2018 08:21 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has become a money-making machine, with cloud services and Office 365 becoming the two main catalysts of a surprising growth that the company achieved in the last fiscal years.

This impressive performance is expected to continue in the next quarters up to the point where Microsoft could reach $1 trillion market capitalization by late 2019 or early 2020, according to analyst Richard Davis from Canaccord.

“If you believe, as we do, that it is reasonable to expect MSFT to appreciate between 10-20% annually for the next five years, you get to the Big T as early as calendar Q4 2019, or more like sometime in early 2020,” Davis was quoted as saying.

The analyst believes that Office 365 will account for a bigger part of the total revenues, while Microsoft’s CRM and marketing offering will post strong performance despite competition from Salesforce, Google, and Amazon.

Apple and its $1 trillion dream

Surprisingly, if Microsoft indeed reaches $1 trillion market value, it could be the first technology company to do it, unless Apple does it sooner.

Originally, Apple was projected to hit $1 trillion as soon as this year thanks to the iPhone X, but the most recent analyst estimates suggest weakening demand and revenues below expectations.

This means Apple could not reach the target this year and instead look for 2019 for the $1 trillion goal. The company has prepared a revamped iPhone lineup for 2018 to help it with this target, and it includes three different models, two of them are believed to be with OLED screens.

However, this isn’t the first time Microsoft is projected to become a $1 trillion company. Evercore was first to forecast this milestone in early December when it estimated that by the end of 2020, Microsoft would reach record valuation thanks to Office 365 and Azure.

Earlier the same month, analyst Michael Markowski also estimated Microsoft would reach $1 trillion market value, again with the enterprise offering to the main engine of this growth.

It remains to be seen who manages to hit this historical milestone first, but right now, both Microsoft and Apple seem to be very close to doing it in just a couple of years.