Both advanced investors and inexperienced beginners are all interested in getting profits from their trades. Some are more risk-loving and go for less famous but potentially more profitable strategies, while others choose to stick to a more risk-averse approach and get shares of companies that everyone has heard of.

📊 One of such companies is Microsoft – one of the largest IT organizations headquartered in Redmond, USA. Their main specialization is development and implementation of software (Windows, Microsoft Office, games, cloud solutions). Although those are the main products Microsoft became famous for, they also create less common solutions like X-BOX consoles, Lumia phones, as well as tables and other products currently in development stages. Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Pol Allen, who started their business by implementing their idea of creating an interpreter for one of the programming languages for the Altair 8800 computer, popular in the mid-70s. Now, the company is said to employ around 127 thousand people and its capitalization is equal to $2.01 billion, while Microsoft shares are worth around $265 at the time of writing.

➡️ But don’t get discouraged – it doesn’t mean that it’s too late to buy Microsoft shares. Instead, it might be considered as a good investment opportunity, as Microsoft is one of the largest IT organizations.

Microsoft Corp. shares are traded on most exchanges of the world including NAGA. The first IPO took place in 1986 for 300,000 shares with a starting price of $21 per share. Microsoft shares are taken into account when calculating the majority of indices of stocks, for example S&P 500, S&P 100, Dow Jones, Nasdaq 100, Nasdaq Comp. and many others. Therefore, Microsoft shares play a major role in American stock market and continue to be extremely attractive for all kinds of investors.

How to buy microsoft shares

The good news is that you can buy Microsoft shares easily with just a few clicks. All you need to do is find a reliable exchange that is safe to use, create an account and buy the shares. This is true because all stock exchanges work online and you don’t even have to leave the comfort of your own home to buy Microsoft stock shares. All you need is an exchange, let’s say NAGA, the amount of money you want to invest and some common knowledge. The buying process itself is very simple and quick. Once registered, select the number of MSFT shares and click the BUY button. It’s really not hard.

Alternatively, you can invest in Microsoft shares by taking part in so-called binary options. What are these?

A binary option is a type of contract where you choose a set condition for either rise or fall of the stock price at a given time.
Binary options can be bought for a variety of durations, ranging from minutes to months. You can buy binary options for a period of 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week or 1 month. The only condition is a rise or fall in prices. When buying, you must set a prediction on whether the stock price will rise or fall. Based on this, you should buy an option UP (growth forecast) or DOWN (price fall forecast).

Price of Microsoft shares today and the overall trend

As was mentioned above, the current price of Microsoft remains at around $265 per share. After the 1998 crisis, Microsoft assets significantly crashed but were able to go back to their initial position by the end of 1999. Then the rally started again, as the IT industry started experiencing a dramatic fall in shares overall. This crisis, caused by a decrease in investor interest in the high-tech sector of the economy, led to a drop in the shares of many issuers traded on the NASDAQ market and Microsoft was not an exception.

The year of 2000 was somewhat positive for the company, as the shares began going back up and slowly but steadily have eventually reached their previous level by the end of 2007. However, due to lack of investor confidence in high-tech companies, Microsoft’s share price has not been able to reach the same value as it peaked at the end of 1999. Then the financial crisis of 2008 led to the formation of a downtrend in the issuer’s shares, which ended in early 2009. After that, the market started experiencing a significant rise in price of Microsoft shares. For now, the price is more or less stabilized and Microsoft could still be an attractive asset for many investors. Here is some statistics on companies that hold Microsoft shares:

• The Vanguard Group, Inc., holding 6.8% of the company’s total shares.
• Capital World Investors, holding 4.8% of the total number of shares.
• State Street Corporation, holding 4.09% of all shares.
• BlackRock Institutional Trust Company, holding 2.71% of the total number of shares.
• Rowe Price Associates, Inc., holding controls 2.47% of all shares in the company.