How much as the economy grown in the last year, or how much has the dollar inflated in the last 5 years. I'm sure there is some stock growth there, and it definitely isn't tanking. But for someone who bought 5 years ago, was it a good investment with respect to the market average for this sector?
Yes, and here's why. . .
http://www.kiplinger.com/article/investing/T052-C017-S001-wh...
MS tends to be in the sweet spot for investors. It's not grossly over priced, they hit their numbers on a regular basis, and no expects them to be successful. Therefore, if one of their products hits big, investors are happy, if they have a flop, no biggie, the shares are only $23.
Compare that to Apple. Their shares are in the $500 range and they are the homecoming queen in the tech sector. If they have a flop, and you have a sizable investment, you're hosed. If they hit their numbers, your large investment stays put. It's a lot more riskier.
The price of a single share is utterly irrelevant to the risk of an investment. Whether you own 200 shares @ $25 or 10 shares @ $500, a 10% drop in the stock price is a 10% in the stock price.
Microsoft stock is up 25% over the last 5 years. The NASDAQ is up 56%. Apple is up 160%, even after the large drop over the past year.
Microsoft currently has a P/E of 16, Apple has a P/E of 10.
Additionally securities like MSFT, you can comfortably get 'aggressive' through call writing, and juice returns a little more without your risk metrics being outside your targets.