LONDON — If you’re interested in building a profitable, diversified portfolio, then you will often need to compare similar companies when choosing which share to buy next. These comparisons aren’t always as easy as they sound, so in this series, I’m going to compare some of the best-known names from the FTSE 100, FTSE 250 and the U.S. stock market.
I’m going to use three key criteria — value, income and growth — to compare companies to their sector peers. I’ve included some U.S. shares, as these provide U.K. investors with access to some of the world’s largest and most successful companies. Although there are some tax implications to holding U.S. shares in a UK. .dealing account, they are pretty straightforward and I feel are outweighed by the investing potential of the American market.
1. Value
The easiest way to lose money on shares is to pay too much for them — so which share looks better value, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) or Microsoft?
| Value | Apple | Microsoft |
|---|---|---|
| Current price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) | 10.0 | 15.1 |
| Forecast P/E | 9.7 | 9.0 |
| Price-to-book ratio (P/B) | 3.3 | 3.2 |
| Price-to-sales ratio (P/S) | 2.5 | 3.2 |
Apple edges ahead in terms of value, with a much lower P/E ratio and a lower price-to-sales ratio, showing that you get more revenue for your money when you buy Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock. A meaningful comparison of P/S ratios requires you to compare profit margins, too — revenue is no use if it isn’t profitable — but in this case Apple’s advantage is confirmed, thanks to its pre-tax profit margin of 34%, which is higher than Microsoft’s 28% pre-tax margin.
It’s also interesting to note that if both companies’ net cash balances are removed from their market capitalisations, they look even cheaper. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has $137 billion of net cash, which equates to a P/E ratio of 7, net of cash. Microsoft has net cash of $64 billion, which equates to a P/E of 10.9 — both of these are in value territory, and are well below the NASDAQ market average of 16.6.
2. Income
With low interest rates set to continue for the foreseeable future, dividends have become one of the most popular ways of generating an investment income. How do Apple and Microsoft compare in terms of income?
| Value | Apple | Microsoft |
|---|---|---|
| Historic dividend yield | 0.6% | 2.7% |
| 5-year average historical yield | n/a | 2.2% |
| 5-year dividend average growth rate | n/a | 14.9% |
| 2013 forecast yield | 2.4% | 3.4% |
Microsoft takes the lead in the income stakes, thanks to its much longer record of rising dividend payments. The maker of Windows has increased its dividend ten times over since 2003, raising its payout every single year. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), by contrast, only reintroduced dividend payments in 2012, after a 17-year break.
However, both companies could afford to pay much more generous dividends from their free cash flow alone — without touching their cash piles. A decision by either company to do this would also be likely to trigger strong share price gains, as both already offer yields well above the S&P 500 average of 2.2%.
