AMZN vs MSFT.

→The two are furthest apart on Shareholder returns, where Microsoft passes 5 more of the six.

	AMZN	MSFT
Shareholder returns	0/6	5/6
Trend	2/6	4/6
Value	2/6	1/6
Growth	6/6	5/6
Quality	6/6	5/6
Financial health	5/6	5/6
All checks	21/36	25/36

→Amazon turns over $775.7B to Microsoft's $331.8B, 2.3 times as much. Amazon keeps 17.4% of revenue as profit against 40.3% at Microsoft.

→Microsoft pays 0.7% at today's price and Amazon effectively pays nothing, which is the clearest difference in what each hands back.

	AMZN	MSFT
Dividend yield	-	0.7%
Payout ratio	-	19.8%
Years of unbroken dividend	-	-

→Amazon is the cheaper of the two on earnings, 20.6x against 27.6x. Against their own histories, Amazon is below its 77.8x median and Microsoft is above its 26.9x.

	AMZN	MSFT
Share price	$256.78	$495.63
Market cap	$2.77T	$3.68T
P/E	20.6x	27.6x
P/E, own median own 10-year median / own 11-year median	77.8x	26.9x
P/S	3.6x	11.1x
Free cash flow yield	-0.4%	1.8%

→Microsoft grew revenue faster over the last twelve months, +17.8% against +15.8% at Amazon - 2 points apart. Over three years the order is reversed: Microsoft compounds at +16.1% against +11.7%.

	AMZN	MSFT
Revenue (TTM)	$775.7B	$331.8B
Revenue growth, 1 year	+15.8%	+17.8%
Revenue CAGR, 3 years	+11.7%	+16.1%
Net income (TTM)	$135.3B	$133.7B
Free cash flow (TTM)	$-11.6B	$67.0B

→Microsoft keeps more of each sale: gross margin of 67.9% against 50.8%, a gap of 17 points that flows into everything below it.

	AMZN	MSFT
Gross margin	50.8%	67.9%
Operating margin	12.1%	46.8%
Return on equity	24.5%	30.2%

→Microsoft carries much the lighter balance sheet, 0.09x of debt to equity against 0.24x - which matters most in the year a downturn arrives, not this one.

	AMZN	MSFT
Debt / equity	0.24x	0.09x
Interest coverage	28.1x	50.9x
Cash and short-term investments	$123.0B	$76.8B