Microsoft tops trillion-dollar mark for first time

Microsoft has become the world’s most valuable company in today’s stock market trade, hitting a market cap of $1 trillion and outstripping Apple.

Microsoft hit the trillion-dollar value mark on Thursday for the first time, becoming the third technology giant to reach the symbolic milestone.

Shares in Microsoft rallied some five per cent to $US130.59 ($A186.32) in early Wall Street trade after a robust earnings report a day earlier.

That gave Microsoft a market capitalisation of just over $US1 trillion ($A1.43 trillion), before dipping back slightly.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on April 25 where Microsoft shares topped estimates. Picture: AP Photo/Richard Drew, File

At its current levels, Microsoft is the world’s most valuable company, ahead of Apple and Amazon, which last year topped $1 trillion before slipping back.

On Wednesday, Microsoft said profits in the quarter to March 31 rose 19 per cent to $US8.8 billion ($A12.56 billion) on revenues of $US30.8 billion ($A43.94 billion), an increase of 14 per cent from the same period a year earlier.

Microsoft has experienced a “blow out” quarter with share values outstripping even Apple. Picture: AP Photo/Steven Senne, File

The results were driven by growth in cloud computing and business services, the new focus for Microsoft after a long run as a leader in consumer software.

“This quarter was an absolute ‘blow out quarter’ across the board with no blemishes and in our opinion speaks to an inflection point in deal flow as more enterprises pick (Microsoft) for the cloud,” said Daniel Ives of Wedbush Securities.

“While the stock has been very strong and a trillion dollar market cap is now reached, we believe the cloud party is just getting started in Redmond.”