Apple Inc. (AAPL), Microsoft Corporation (MSFT): Who’s Who?

And, when you consider the margin of safety provided by the company’s gigantic cash pile (currently $145 billion in cash, equivalents, and short and long term marketable securities), as well as the stock’s 3% dividend yield and $60 billion share buyback program, you can clearly see that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) investors are in a much better position now than Microsoft’s investors were in 2001.

Put simply, the difference between Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) at the start of its lost decade and Apple’s current position is clear. Microsoft needed to produce huge growth rates in sales and earnings to justify its lofty valuation as the Tech Bubble inflated, whereas Apple would need to experience nothing less than a collapse in its business for investors to not earn reasonable returns going forward.

The article Why Apple Is Not Microsoft originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Robert Ciura.

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