Apple stock hits $200 for the first time post-split
Following Apple's third quarter earnings announcement, the company's stock broke the $200 per share milestone at 10:37am eastern on Tuesday morning, for the first time since Apple's stock split four years ago.
After hovering just below $200, the share price briefly touched the milestone, before dropping just below the figure. A few minutes later at 10:39am eastern, the price again reached $200, then continued to hover around the same level. The price remained over $200 for most of the afternoon and closed Wednesday at $201.50. According to one analyst, Apple's stock will need to reach $203.45 in order to hit a market capitalization of $1 trillion.
Apple's stock closed at $190.29 Tuesday, 30 minutes before the earnings were announced. For the hour or so after earnings, and through the overnight, the price hovered around $198.
The company hit its previous post-split all-time high, of $194.82, on July 25. Its stock has broken records throughout the year.
Apple executed a 7-for-1 stock split in June 2014, in order to make its stock more accessible to a greater number of investors. Before the split, Apple's stock hit an all-time high of $700 in September of 2012, following strong sales of the iPhone 5.
In April of this year, Apple's stock dropped into the 160s on fears that it was looking at soft iPhone demand. But the announcement of surprisingly strong Q2 earnings -- as well as the revelation that Warren Buffett had upped his stake in the company -- brought the price up to a then-high of $183.83 on May 4.
There were then no significant reasons for Apple's stock to drop at any point in the third quarter, leading up to Tuesday's earnings.
After hovering just below $200, the share price briefly touched the milestone, before dropping just below the figure. A few minutes later at 10:39am eastern, the price again reached $200, then continued to hover around the same level. The price remained over $200 for most of the afternoon and closed Wednesday at $201.50. According to one analyst, Apple's stock will need to reach $203.45 in order to hit a market capitalization of $1 trillion.
Apple's stock closed at $190.29 Tuesday, 30 minutes before the earnings were announced. For the hour or so after earnings, and through the overnight, the price hovered around $198.
The company hit its previous post-split all-time high, of $194.82, on July 25. Its stock has broken records throughout the year.
Apple executed a 7-for-1 stock split in June 2014, in order to make its stock more accessible to a greater number of investors. Before the split, Apple's stock hit an all-time high of $700 in September of 2012, following strong sales of the iPhone 5.
In April of this year, Apple's stock dropped into the 160s on fears that it was looking at soft iPhone demand. But the announcement of surprisingly strong Q2 earnings -- as well as the revelation that Warren Buffett had upped his stake in the company -- brought the price up to a then-high of $183.83 on May 4.
There were then no significant reasons for Apple's stock to drop at any point in the third quarter, leading up to Tuesday's earnings.
Comments
The point of the $1 trillion mark is about it being a milestone.
There's still a lot of hate against Apple despite their success and ability to turn an actual profit, and plenty of articles claiming Apple will not be the first trillion dollar company:
For me, the greatest benefit for Apple being the first publicly traded company to reach the $1 trillion milestone is that you can't ever take that away from them, and I've had to deal with people since the late 1990s telling me that Apple isn't a good investment.
https://www.businessinsider.com/apples-market-cap-in-fx-inflation-adjusted-context-2015-2
So you see there will always be ways to dismiss or even disparage Apple’s achievements. If and when Apple reaches that $1trillion mark you will see the Internet literally explode with “yeah buts” and “so whats” followed by dismissals, denials, spin, misinformation, redirection, etc. Wait for it.
But some of that $20 billion worth of buy backs (in the just passed quarter) would have been accounted for in the old share count, as that count was as of April 20th. And the share count used for the diluted EPS (which is an average) suggested that the ending share count for the quarter wasn’t 100 million or so (i.e. $20 billion worth) less than the last reported share count. So, unless Apple bought back a good bit of stock in early July, I wouldn’t expect the updated share count to fall by 100 million shares.
If it doesn't happen tomorrow then be prepared for the cries of failure and doom from all quarters. Oh, and the word "fizzle" will be trotted out too.