Record day pushes Apple stock to nearly a half-trillion dollars in value [u]
With Apple's iPad media event now official, the company's stock was sent to new heights on Tuesday, propelling its total market capitalization to nearly $500 billion.
Following the release of invitations to its March 7 event on Tuesday, Apple crossed the $535 mark in the afternoon. That was enough to push its market cap to more than $498 billion dollars. AAPL stock closed the day up $9.65, or 1.84 percent, within spitting distance of $500 billion.
For comparison, Exxon Mobile Corporation, a company with which Apple was neck-and-neck in terms of market cap for months, was worth $411 billion as of Tuesday afternoon, or nearly $90 billion less than Apple.
Earlier this month, Apple blew past a market capitalization of $456 billion, which at the time was equal to the combined market cap of its rivals Microsoft and Google. Apple's upward trajectory has continued since the company reported its best quarter ever, earning $13.06 billion on sales of 37 million iPhones, 15 million iPads and 5.2 million Macs during the holidays of 2011.
Apple first surpassed Microsoft in May of 2010, when each company had a market cap of around $222 billion. In less than two years, Apple's market value has more than doubled, while on Tuesday Microsoft's market cap was a little more than half that of Apple's, at $267 billion.
Though Apple's stock hit new bests on Thursday, many analysts expect that it will go much higher over the coming weeks and months. Gene Munster with Piper Jaffray has maintained a price target of $670, Robert Cihra of Evercore has a projected price of $650, and a $600 price target is shared by Mike Abramsky of RBC Capital Markets and Chris Whitmore of Deutsche Bank.
Update: Apple has hit the half-trillion dollar mark in after hours trading, pushing the stock's price past its 52-week high to $536.39 as of 6:03PM EST.
[ View article on AppleInsider ]
Comments
And low capital gains taxes...
Darn! I can't buy stock since it doesn't want to come down a little!
The worst thing to do is wait. If you wait, you might encounter a pull back, but the stock might be higher when that occurs, so you've gained nothing. I've got people asking me for advice on a regular basis, and I always tell them to do it NOW, and to not listen to their broker or financial advisor. When they do listen to them, they almost always get the; "Sure, we can do that, once it pulls back to $---". But it never does, and then you're chasing the new high.
If you want to play, but not pop for the full amount, or go long, you can always go with options. But you have to really understand that. It's complex. I no longer bother.
Wish I'd forgotten that it's smart to diversify when I bought more Apple, Exxon and Yahoo in early 2009 and put it all in Apple at $91 instead. 😥
Really wish I had sold at $525 a week or so ago and bought back in the $490's soon after. I wonder if this is another opportunity to sell at $535 and buy back again. Anyone else thinking it might push back to around $500?
It does always seem to drop a little after event day.
I can't believe $500 now looks like a steal in retrospect..
Heck, the day the iPhone 4S was announced (October 4), the stock drooped down as low as $354.24 before closing at $372.50.
+50% in less than five months is not bad.
After hours trading has pushed AAPL over the half-trillion market cap threshold.
Really wish I had sold at $525 a week or so ago and bought back in the $490's soon after. I wonder if this is another opportunity to sell at $535 and buy back again. Anyone else thinking it might push back to around $500?
You're in the wrong boards.
You want the day-trader forums.
guys Apple's market cap already passed the $500B mark in after hours trading!
For that the price must get $536,87
does anyone know what the highest market capitalization ever achieved by a corporation is? It looks like Exxon got up to ~510+ in late 2007, and I saw some references to PetroChina in late 2007 that I could not substantiate.... I think AAPL is close to having the highest market cap ever achieved, but not sure....
PetroChina crossed an implied $1 trillion in value in 2007, but that was because Chinese stock markets were on a bubble-ish tear at that time, the stock had just done an IPO, and the float was very small (<5%, I think). It is trading in the mid-$200Bs now.... (There were similar run-ups for Cisco and Micrsoft; their P/E ratios made no sense. Unlike that for Apple, which is still only ~15x).
The question to ask is: Could Apple be the world's first sustainably, reliably trillion dollar company?
(For the record, I think it's unlikely. But $750B is certainly in the realm of possibility).
guys Apple's market cap already passed the $500B mark in after hours trading!
For that the price must get $536,87
Both Yahoo Finance and Google Finance say that AAPL has 932.37M shares outstanding.
At the risk of sounding nitpicky, that would say $536.27, not $536.87.....
PetroChina crossed an implied $1 trillion in value in 2007, but that was because Chinese stock markets were on a bubble-ish tear at that time, the stock had just done an IPO, and the float was very small (<5%, I think). It is trading in the mid-$200Bs now.... (There were similar run-ups for Cisco and Micrsoft; their P/E ratios made no sense. Unlike that for Apple, which is still only ~15x).
The question to ask is: Could Apple be the world's first sustainably, reliably trillion dollar company?
(For the record, I think it's unlikely. But $750B is certainly in the realm of possibility).
You don't think Apple can ever cross $750B or just not this year? If they keep growing only at 20% for a few more years $1 trillion valuation seems easily attainable and sustainable.
PetroChina crossed an implied $1 trillion in value in 2007, but that was because Chinese stock markets were on a bubble-ish tear at that time, the stock had just done an IPO, and the float was very small (<5%, I think). It is trading in the mid-$200Bs now.... (There were similar run-ups for Cisco and Micrsoft; their P/E ratios made no sense. Unlike that for Apple, which is still only ~15x).
The question to ask is: Could Apple be the world's first sustainably, reliably trillion dollar company?
(For the record, I think it's unlikely. But $750B is certainly in the realm of possibility).
Im just curious why you think a 1 trillion dollar market cap is "unlikely"... If aapl grows at even a modest 20% per year (notice modest for aapl is incredible for any other company), then in 5 years they would have an estimated EPS of about 87. All it takes is a PE of 11.5 to get them to about 1 trillion...
Or lets try this, say aapl continues to range in the PE of about 15. What kind of earnings will get them to 1 trillion dollar market cap? About $66 EPS... Thats about 88% growth from where they are currently. Over 5 years that would be a compounded growth of about 14 percent per year... Do you think they can do that? I kind of think they can blow this away as usual... They will be the worlds first multi-trillion dollar company IMO. They will cross the trillion dollar mark in 2 years...