Microsoft (MSFT 2.16%) and Texas Instruments (TXN 0.95%) are two tech firms that have been around for decades and successfully navigated several downturns. The important reason these companies keep going is their combination of industry leadership and financial strength.
With the stocks of Microsoft and TI down 34% and 16%, respectively, year to date, the market dip presents an excellent opportunity to invest in these leaders at attractive valuations. Let's look at where Microsoft and TI are investing to drive long-term growth.
Microsoft is on offense
Dominant Microsoft has seen its share price fall 34% year to date. The software giant reported stable growth in its latest earnings report. Revenue was up 16% on a constant-currency basis in each of the last two quarters. Still, Microsoft's results were mixed with softness in consumer-related businesses such as Office, Windows, and Xbox gaming.
CEO Satya Nadella is not swayed by the near-term direction of the economy. Management is investing capital in areas where digital technology will continue to grow as a percentage of the world's economic output over time, which will lead to more growth.
With services like Azure cloud, Power Apps, Dynamics 365, and Microsoft Teams, the company is helping corporations operate more efficiently while saving money and time. It's no surprise that cloud revenue now makes up half of Microsoft's business and grew 24% year over year in the most recent quarter.
Microsoft is loaded with $58 billion of net cash in the bank and generated an impressive $63 billion of free cash flow on $203 billion in revenue over the last year. The company pays out nearly a third of free cash flow in dividends, bringing the current dividend yield to 1.1%. Investors should take comfort in holding shares of a company with this much financial fortitude.
At a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 23, Microsoft is one of the best businesses in the world trading at a smaller premium to the S&P 500 P/E of 19.6.
Texas Instruments offers a market-beating dividend yield
Texas Instruments makes analog chips for a variety of markets, including industrial applications, auto, and consumer electronics. The company has been around since the Great Depression, but year to date, the stock has fallen 14%. Although the company's revenue grew 13% year over year in the third quarter, management cited weakness in personal electronics, which has started to spread to industrial markets.
Texas Instruments has been fine-tuning its manufacturing processes of analog and embedded processors for decades, and it's become very profitable doing so. Over the last year, it generated $5.9 billion in free cash flow on $20 billion in revenue. The company paid out 71% of free cash flow in dividends, bringing Texas Instruments' dividend yield to a market-beating 2.9%.
On top of paying out dividends, management still has plenty of cash to keep investing in long-term growth initiatives. It is currently expanding manufacturing capacity for 300-millimeter wafers which will allow the company to meet more demand and expand margins over the long term.
Management is clearly using the downturn to apply more pressure on competitors that may not have the financial resources to keep investing at a high rate. TI's ability to make thousands of parts and sell those products to 100,000 different customers is a key competitive advantage that has delivered market-beating returns to investors for many years.
A $10,000 investment in TI stock 10 years ago would be worth $54,000 today even after the market dip. With the stock trading at a P/E of 17 times expected earnings, a small discount to the average stock, investors could score market-beating returns off these lower share prices over the next decade.
