If You Invested $1000 in Microsoft a Decade Ago, This is How Much It'd Be Worth Now
FOMO, or the fear of missing out, also plays a role in investing, particularly with tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.
What if you'd invested in Microsoft (MSFT) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to MSFT for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?
With that in mind, let's take a look at Microsoft's main business drivers.
Microsoft Corporation is one of the largest broad-based technology providers in the world. The company dominates the PC software market with more than 73% of the market share for desktop operating systems.The company's Microsoft 365 application suite is one of the most popular productivity software globally. It is also one of the prominent public cloud providers that can deliver a wide variety of infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) solutions at scale.Redmond, WA-based Microsoft's products include operating systems, cross-device productivity applications, server applications, business solution applications, desktop and server management tools, software development tools and video games. Its software solutions and hardware devices are playing an important role in developing the metaverse.The company designs and sells PCs, tablets, gaming and entertainment consoles, other intelligent devices, and related accessories. Through Azure, it offers cloud-based solutions that provide customers with software, services, platforms and content.Microsoft reported revenues of $245.1 billion in fiscal 2024. The company reports operations under three segments: Productivity & Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud and More Personal Computing.Productivity & Business Processes accounted for 31.7% of fiscal 2024 revenues. The segment offers productivity and collaboration tools and services including Office 365, Dynamics business solutions, Teams, Relationship Sales solution, Power Platform and LinkedIn.Intelligent Cloud, which include Azure cloud services, contributed to 42.9% of fiscal 2024 revenues.Microsoft closed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard on October 13, 2023 for $75.4 billion. Activision Blizzard has been integrated as a sibling division to Xbox Game Studios and ZeniMax Media. More Personal Computing represented 25.3% of fiscal 2024 revenues. The segment comprises mainly the Windows, Gaming (Xbox hardware and Xbox software and services), Devices (Surface, PC accessories, and other intelligent devices) and Search (Bing and Microsoft Advertising) businesses.
While anyone can invest, building a lucrative investment portfolio takes research, patience, and a little bit of risk. If you had invested in Microsoft ten years ago, you're probably feeling pretty good about your investment today.
According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in July 2015 would be worth $11,060.59, or a gain of 1,006.06%, as of July 3, 2025, and this return excludes dividends but includes price increases.
Compare this to the S&P 500's rally of 199.86% and gold's return of 176.71% over the same time frame.
Analysts are forecasting more upside for MSFT too.
Microsoft capitalizes on AI business momentum and Copilot adoption alongside accelerating Azure cloud infrastructure expansion. Strong Office 365 Commercial demand has been propeling Productivity and Business Processes revenue growth notably. ARPU increases through E5 and M365 Copilot uptake across key segments. Intelligent Cloud revenues advance through Azure AI development and AI Copilot busines growth. Strategic execution has been enhancing non-AI services through enterprise customer growth and operational scale improvements. Xbox content and services benefit from robust performance across third-party and first-party content offerings. We expect that fiscal 2025 net sales will increase 13.7% compared to fiscal 2024. However, elevated operating expenses and Azure investments amid intensifying cloud competition remain concerns for the stakeholders.
The stock is up 5.87% over the past four weeks, and no earnings estimate has gone lower in the past two months, compared to 3 higher, for fiscal 2025. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.
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