Apple stock officially begins trading as member of Dow Jones Industrial Average

Posted:
in AAPL Investors edited March 2015
The world's most valuable company is now a part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, as Apple officially became a part of the index at the start of trading on Thursday.




Apple replaced AT&T on the Dow when the market closed on Wednesday, and when trading began at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, Apple's effect on the Dow's daily performance became official.

The Dow's change became possible because of Apple's own 7-for-1 stock split, which took place in June of last year and helped to make room for the iPhone maker. Also contributing was Visa, whose 4-for-1 stock split is also effective today.

The post-split price of Visa reduced the weighting of the Information Technology sector in the index. Swapping out AT&T for Apple helped to partially offset that reduction.

AT&T had one of the lowest prices among DJIA constituents when it was decided the wireless provider would be nixed from the index. Rival Verizon remains a part of the Dow.

Shares of AAPL opened the day on the Nasdaq up slightly, at $around $129, just below the company's all-time high of $133.60. Apple's market cap is currently at $748.3 billion, making it by far the most valuable company on the market, more than double that of Exxon Mobil's $361 billion market cap.
«1

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 37
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member

    AAPL > GOOG + MSFT combined. My IRA is very happy about this.

  • Reply 2 of 37
    Time to get that yield up to 3%, Cook.
  • Reply 3 of 37
    kent909kent909 Posts: 731member
    I would love to wake up one day and read "Apple replaces AT&T" as the second largest broadband provider.
  • Reply 4 of 37
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Benjamin Frost View Post



    Time to get that yield up to 3%, Cook.

    Yep, this is what predictably happens.

     

    Once a company attracts the dividend investor clientele, they just want more, more, more... it's relentless....

  • Reply 5 of 37
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by kent909 View Post



    I would love to wake up one day and read "Apple replaces AT&T" as the second largest broadband provider.

    It's an utterly horrible business with high capex, low growth, low P/E, and lots of service/maintenance needs.

     

    Apple has no business in it.

  • Reply 6 of 37
    disturbiadisturbia Posts: 563member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post

     

    It's an utterly horrible business with high capex, low growth, low P/E, and lots of service/maintenance needs.

     

    Apple has no business in it.


    Google has no business in anything, except search and ad, but still throwing sh1t at wall see how / if it sticks.

  • Reply 7 of 37

    Apple joined the Dow today with a great big thud.  I'm not sure why they're making such a big thing out of this.  Apple looks exactly the same as it did before it joined the Dow.  Hey, it's just the first day, so we'll have to see what transpires over the longer term.  I didn't expect much to happen today and I was right.  Apple isn't going to magically grow wings and fly to higher numbers.  It's going to be the usual push and grind for Apple to move the share price up ever higher.  That's a given.  No free passes for Apple.

  • Reply 8 of 37
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Disturbia View Post

     

    Google has no business in anything, except search and ad, but still throwing sh1t at wall see how / if it sticks.


    Apple is not Google. And thank God for that.

  • Reply 9 of 37
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Steffen Jobbs View Post

     

    Apple joined the Dow today with a great big thud.  I'm not sure why they're making such a big thing out of this.  Apple looks exactly the same as it did before it joined the Dow.  Hey, it's just the first day, so we'll have to see what transpires over the longer term.  I didn't expect much to happen today and I was right.  Apple isn't going to magically grow wings and fly to higher numbers.  It's going to be the usual push and grind for Apple to move the share price up ever higher.  That's a given.  No free passes for Apple.


    Did anyone here say that it amounts to anything more than a hill of beans!?

     

    Talk about a strawman argument...

  • Reply 10 of 37
    kent909kent909 Posts: 731member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post

     

    It's an utterly horrible business with high capex, low growth, low P/E, and lots of service/maintenance needs.

     

    Apple has no business in it.




    Well the intent of my comment is to illustrate the need for Apple or someone fix the broadband situation in this country. Yes, I can dump Comcast as my TV provider, but I am still stuck with them as my Internet provider. Just wishing.

  • Reply 11 of 37
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,606member
    We can see by Apple stock price so far today at how excited everyone is at this.
  • Reply 12 of 37
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    melgross wrote: »
    We can see by Apple stock price so far today at how excited everyone is at this.

    And it shouldn't matter to anyone other than the Dow Jones group. ????
  • Reply 13 of 37
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,606member
    Time to get that yield up to 3%, Cook.

    I don't think so. That would be over twice what it is now. And while I wouldn't mind it as a shareholder, a dividend is a promise. They need to continue it, at whatever rate they're paying or the market will pummel the stock, and question the company. But, every so often, a company can make a one time dispersement, as Microsoft was forced to do years ago by investors.

    The problem today, is that so many American companies make most of their sales overseas, and therefore, most of their profits. Apple is already borrowing money to pay for dividends and buybacks. I don't want to see them too heavily leveraged because of this.

    I do agree with those who say that we need to do something about taxes and profits held overseas.
  • Reply 14 of 37
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,606member
    And it shouldn't matter to anyone other than the Dow Jones group. ????

    Well, supposedly, it should be, but generally isn't. Though most DOW companies are staid, and uninteresting. This kind of mixes Apple into that group.
  • Reply 15 of 37
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,606member
    kent909 wrote: »

    Well the intent of my comment is to illustrate the need for Apple or someone fix the broadband situation in this country. Yes, I can dump Comcast as my TV provider, but I am still stuck with them as my Internet provider. Just wishing.

    Like most things, it isn't that easy. How would Apple do this? Leasing backbone from those very same companies?

    If they would truly be independent, they would need to lay their own fiber, as Verizon has been doing. But it's cost Verizon over $100 billion over the years, and they're not going to to lay any more once the designated areas are finished, though, that could always change in the future. Verizon owns many telephone poles, and underground access tunnels. Apple does not.

    How much would it cost Apple to do the entire country? I saw some estimates of the cost to fiber the entire country a couple of years ago, and it ranged from something over $1 trillion, to about $3 trillion. This is a BIG country! Comparing us to little countries is never fair. Who is going to pay for that?

    This is why it takes so long. Companies have to get paid for it as they go along. Both AT&T and Verizon spend well over $10 billion a year just on cell towers, which is why both Sprint and T-Mobile are so far behind, they can't afford it.
  • Reply 16 of 37
    rob53rob53 Posts: 3,290member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Steffen Jobbs View Post

     

    Apple joined the Dow today with a great big thud.  I'm not sure why they're making such a big thing out of this.  Apple looks exactly the same as it did before it joined the Dow.  Hey, it's just the first day, so we'll have to see what transpires over the longer term.  I didn't expect much to happen today and I was right.  Apple isn't going to magically grow wings and fly to higher numbers.  It's going to be the usual push and grind for Apple to move the share price up ever higher.  That's a given.  No free passes for Apple.


    I'm ok with a small thud, I'm just hoping the analysts won't make up things about the move causing AAPL to drop for no reason. It started off the day with a little bang then fell into the typical slow drop. We'll see how it goes in the next week or so.

  • Reply 17 of 37
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,606member
    sog35 wrote: »
    Take advantage of the manipulation.

    When the stock drops for stupid reasons buy more.

    That's what I did a few weeks ago when it dropped to $121.  Sold them yesterday for $128.   I'm still holding my core shares of about 600 shares.

    Sigh! It's not manipulation. How many times are you going to misunderstand the difference between manipulation and normal market movements?
  • Reply 18 of 37
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by sog35 View Post

     
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by melgross View Post





    Sigh! It's not manipulation. How many times are you goi g to misunderstand the difference between manipulation and normal market movements?

     

    ever heard of options?

     

    You need to learn a thing or two about the market.


    What's your point about options and manipulation? I am failing to see it.

     

    People scream 'manipulation' on these boards all the time, but never seem to provide any real evidence of it (because, in my view, there's not much of it).

  • Reply 19 of 37
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by sog35 View Post

     

    ust look at the last few months.  Near the end of November the stock was at $119.

    Then in Dec/Jan it dropped big time for no reason at all.  All the way down to $105.  That 12% drop is not normal market movements.  It dropped because of Annual Options Expiration.  There was litterally TENS of BILLIONS on the line if the stock closed above $120 on Jan 16th.

     

    But right after Jan 16th expiration the stock went back up.  I wonder why?  So obvious.

     

    We see this same pattern during Quarterly expiration and Monthly expiration.  So much pressure for the stock to go down so call options expire worthless.

     

    Look at all the BS stories WSJ, Reuters, ect brought out from late Nov to mid January.  Lot of BS to push the stock down.

     

    Apple options is a HUGE market.

     

    Big institutions hold millions of shares of Apple.  Then they sell Call options.  If those options close above the money they lose their shares.  If the Stock closes below the money the institutions can keep there shares and the premium they charged the call buyers.  There is great incentive to keep the stock price low enough at each option expiration.

     

    Of course a material event (like earnings) can destroy this type of manipulation but how many material events occur during the year?  The rest of the time these institutions artificially keep the stock price down or below their strike price.


    There could certainly be a link between options expiration dates and short-term stock prices/volatility. But that's not manipulation. That's par for the course being a publicly listed company. Happens to a lot of stocks. If you take a longer-term view with your investing decisions, all of that sort of thing is noise (or an occasional buying opportunity).

     

    To suggest that respectable news outlets like the WSJ and Reuters are linked to the possibility of stock price manipulation is outright silly or paranoid. Do they sometimes tend to sensationalize or exaggerate stories? Sure. But that's simply to get more clicks and eyeballs in what is a brutally competitive business. Anything with Apple in the headlines always elicits eyeballs. There's not much more to it.

  • Reply 20 of 37
    disturbia wrote: »
     
    Google has no business in anything, except search and ad, but still throwing sh1t at wall see how / if it sticks.
    Apple is not Google. And thank God for that.

    Indeed, but it's showing a few worrying signs of becoming a bit more like them recently, what with privacy issues and the Apple Watch.
Sign In or Register to comment.