After yesterday’s FY16 2nd qtr earnings came out yesterday, Microsoft’s market cap has topped $500 billion for the first time since 2000. After a favorable second quarter, Microsoft continues to beat Wall Street’s expectations.

In early trading, Microsoft’s shares rose 2.1% to $65.64, valuing the company at $510.37 billion. At the time of this writing, Microsoft’s stock price rose to $65.85. Sanford C. Bernstein analysts give Microsoft a $76.00 stock price target.

Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Given a $76.00 Price Target by Sanford C. Bernstein Analysts https://t.co/bYRh0Ke4Zm — Daily Political (@dailypoliticaln) January 27, 2017

The last time Microsoft was over the $500 billion market value evaluation was in March 2000, when it reached $550 billion. Microsoft is still behind Apple ($642 billion) and Google ($570 billion), but Microsoft is making considerable gains due to its impressive cloud computing business.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has pushed his new “mobile-first, cloud-first” strategy to reinvent Microsoft as a company and it appears to be paying off, that is, at least the cloud first part. When Nadella took over for former CEO Steve Ballmer in February 2014, Microsoft stock was trading at $34 and Microsoft’s market value was around $315 billion.

StockTwits pointed out that if anyone was able to invest $10,000 in Microsoft’s 1986 IPO, their shares would now be worth $9.4 million.

Microsoft is pushing hard in cloud services but still behind market leader Amazon Web Services, and is making headway in the premium PC market, although PC numbers in general continue to fall. Is Microsoft on the right track? Let us know what you think in the comments below, and be sure to follow @OnMSFT for all the latest news!

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