The stock prices of both Apple and Microsoft have both fallen sharply this year, according to one investment executive — and if investors are looking to buy down stocks, there’s clearly a winner. “We are very supportive of Microsoft,” said Richard-Mark Dodds, CIO of asset management firm Pure Value Metrics. He says his fund has had positive returns this year, even as most of the major markets fall into bear markets. Apple The Swiss-based fund manager says Apple stock has performed relatively better than Microsoft’s because it spent $90 billion on share buybacks in the last fiscal year, compared with $30 billion buying back from Microsoft. Shares of Apple are down 20% this year, while shares of Microsoft are down 27%. Dodds believes this conceals fundamental weaknesses in the Cupertino-based Apple’s business. The share repurchase brought Apple’s total shareholder equity down to $51 billion from a peak of $134 billion in 2017 as the company continued to borrow money to finance the buyback at a rate that exceeded earnings. . Meanwhile, Microsoft’s total equity grew 47% to $166 billion in the same period. “They’re essentially pushing themselves against a brick wall on the balance sheet,” Dodd said, referring to the possibility that Apple wouldn’t be able to borrow more to prop up its stock through a buyback. Dodds, who was previously the chief executive officer of Credit Suisse, also suggested that since Apple accounts for about 7% of the S&P 500, the entire index is vulnerable to a drop if Apple falters. On the other hand, Dodds highlights the steps Microsoft is taking to make it a better investment. The Windows operating system maker spent about $45 billion in investments last fiscal year to stay in business. Apple, meanwhile, spent $11 billion. Dodds said that Microsoft’s 4% stake in the London Stock Exchange, announced Monday, is evidence of the company’s long-term strategy to grow its cloud services. “I think it’s pretty smart because it’s just locked into the LSE as a cloud client for the next 10 years when there’s a lot of competition in the cloud services space right now,” Dodds said. The CIO also believes that Microsoft will be better able to navigate the global growth slowdown as it is a more diversified business. While Dodds said Apple relies on several profitable revenue streams to sustain growth. “Apple’s growth and profitability are both based on growing the services business it has, but the growth in that business hasn’t been as strong as people expected,” he added. This view is echoed by Jordan Cvetanovski, chief investment officer at Pella Funds Management, who told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” last week that Apple’s growth “will get harder and harder in the future.” ” “They rely heavily on consumers continuing to convince themselves that Apple 14 is more of a must-have than Apple 13.”