Microsoft and its winning ways. In a world turned upside down by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, shares of the Redmond based technology giant increased another 11% this past month.
A sign that its business is still thriving during tough economic times.
According to the data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence, Microsoft stock price was up 11% in June, greatly outperforming the S&P during this time and over the past year. On June 17, the company also declared a regular quarterly dividend.
As noted, Microsoft has investments in personal computers, cloud, and video games — all areas where it continue to excel as people were sheltered at home.
This chart paints the picture:
That said, not everything is business as usual for the company.
It just announced a major shift in strategy, with plans to close all its retail stores across the globe. This will cost the company $450 million as it writes down assets and gets hit with impairment charges related to this move.
But with Microsoft pretty much proving that it can still do great business without these retail locations, there is no better time than now to make this change.
This adjustment in direction was not the reason why the stock outperformed last month, though. That’s because the announcement did not come until June 26. It’s the fact that its core products are being used as much as ever during the pandemic, including stalwarts like Teams and Xbox.
