How is MSFT doing? — an update

On May 5, 2006 I blogged about Microsoft stock was performing and how the stock had done since Steve Balmer had been named President and then also CEO.  Since MSFT has been doing better as of late — almost a 5 year high last week I thought I would run the numbers and see what has changed.  Unfortunately for shareholders it is still not great and continues to be the second worst of the DOW.

 

Today MSFT closed at $30.90.  If you think that one of the jobs of a President or CEO is to protect shareholder value just how well is Steve Ballmer doing?  The bio on Microsoft’s site says Ballmer became President in July of 1998.  If you would have put $10000 in MSFT on 7/1/98 it would be worth $13493 so you would only be up $3493!  The highest value would have had over this time period would have been $21900 in late 1999.  The low would have been $8890 in late 2000.  The bio says he became CEO in January 2000.  Putting $10000 on 1/3/00 by March of that year you would have made $22 but today your value would be $6474 for a loss of $3526!   In late 2000 the value would have been $3882 so I guess being down 35% is not all that bad.    I guess shareholder should be looking long term but just how long should one have to look?

 

Here are the rankings again investing $10000 ~when Steve Ballmer was named CEO. MSFT is still the second worst.  Interestingly enough now two thirds of the companies that make up the DOW are in the black for this time period whereas in 5/06 it was only a third.

Altria Group Inc.	MO	$38,949
Caterpillar Inc.	CAT	$33,651
United Technologies Corp.	UTX	$26,703
Exxon Mobil Corp.	XOM	$25,749
Boeing Co.	BA	$23,976
3M Co.	MMM	$19,852
McDonald’s Corp.	MCD	$15,891
Johnson & Johnson	JNJ	$15,384
Procter & Gamble Co.	PG	$14,518
American Express Co.	AXP	$14,133
Hewlett-Packard Co.	HPQ	$13,811
Citigroup Inc.	C	$13,718
AT&T Inc.	T	$13,163
JPMorgan Chase & Co.	JPM	$12,609
Walt Disney Co.	DIS	$11,956
Honeywell International Inc.	HON	$11,702
Coca-Cola Co.	KO	$11,526
Verizon Communications Inc.	VZ	$11,231
International Business Machines Corp.	IBM	$10,782
Alcoa Inc.	AA	$10,458
Merck & Co. Inc.	MRK	$10,106
General Electric Co.	GE	($9,618)
American International Group Inc.	AIG	($9,009)
E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co.	DD	($8,364)
Pfizer Inc.	PFE	($8,265)
General Motors Corp.	GM	($7,135)
Intel Corp.	INTC	($6,986)
Wal-Mart Stores Inc.	WMT	($6,900)
Microsoft Corp.	MSFT	($6,474)
Home Depot Inc.	HD	($5,314)

 

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