If You Had $5,000 Right Now, Would You Put It On Microsoft Or Facebook?

Every week, Benzinga conducts a survey to collect sentiment on what traders are most excited about, interested in or thinking about as they manage and build their personal portfolios.

This week we posed the following question to over 1,000 Benzinga visitors on tech investing:

If you had $5,000, would you put it on Microsoft Corporation MSFT or Facebook, Inc. Common Stock FB right now?

• Microsoft: 56.4%
• Facebook: 43.6%

See Also: Why Microsoft Is 'One Of The Pillars Of The Market'

Tech giant Microsoft obtained 56.4% of support in this week’s study.

Microsoft shares were trading higher by 2.6% Friday after Wedbush maintained an Outperform rating on the stock and raised its price target from $325 to $350.

Following Friday’s Wedbush analyst rating update, Microsoft shares reached a new 52-week and all-time high of $305.84.

Last month, Microsoft reported fourth-quarter earnings of $2.17 per share which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.90. The company reported quarterly sales of $46.2 billion which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $44.1 billion by 4.8%.

“We are innovating across the technology stack to help organizations drive new levels of tech intensity across their business,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft. 

“Our results show that when we execute well and meet customers’ needs in differentiated ways in large and growing markets, we generate growth, as we’ve seen in our commercial cloud – and in new franchises we’ve built, including gaming, security, and LinkedIn, all of which surpassed $10 billion in annual revenue over the past three years,” Nadella noted.

Microsoft is trading higher by 30% over the past 6 months and 39.8% on a year-to-date basis.

Meanwhile, 43.6% of traders and investors said they would invest in Facebook.

Facebook was trading higher by 1.2% at $359.37 Friday amid overall tech sector strength.

Last month, Facebook reported second-quarter earnings of $3.61 per share which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $3.02 by 19.54 percent. Facebook also reported quarterly sales of $28.58 billion which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $27.82 billion by 2.7%.

"We had a strong quarter as we continue to help businesses grow and people stay connected," said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. 

"I'm excited to see our major initiatives around creators and community, commerce, and building the next computing platform coming together to start to bring the vision of the metaverse to life," Zuckerberg stated.

Facebook is trading higher by 38% in the past 6 months and 33.6% year-to-date.

This survey was conducted by Benzinga in August 2021 and included the responses of a diverse population of adults 18 or older.

Opting into the survey was completely voluntary, with no incentives offered to potential respondents. The study reflects results from over 1,000 adults.