Apple becomes first public US company to hit $2.5T market capitalization

AppleInsider

After a two-day rally, Apple has hit a new record high stock price and a market capitalization of $2.5 trillion in pre-opening trading on Thursday.

Apple has reached a market capitalisation of $2.5 trilion

Shares of the Cupertino tech giant were up more than 2% in trading on Wednesday, leading to a market valuation above the $2.5 trillion threshold for the first time. The new high comes a little less than a year after Apple hit $2 trillion.

The company is now the first publicly traded U.S. firm to have surpassed the $2.5 trillion valuation mark.

Earlier in July, the company's share price hit record highs during a rally that has lasted for a couple of weeks. Apple shares have surged 14.33% since the start of 2021.

Apple first hit $2 trillion on August 19, 2020. It then dipped after a mass technology stock sell-off, but returned on September 4, 2020.

While the company had announced its move to Apple Silicon during WWDC in June 2020, it was only after passing $2 trillion that it actually launched its first M1 range. The technical advancements of that range have been critically praised, and have helped the company see rising Mac sales even as the rest of the industry slowed down.

Apple has also subsequently launched its COVID-impacted iPhone 12 range. The great success of that has been described as a supercycle in iPhone sales, and became the world's top-selling 5G phone shortly after launch.

Since reaching $2 trillion, Apple has also launched its Apple One bundle of services, including the introduction of Apple Fitness+.

Despite the coronavirus, the company has also pressed ahead with many more hardware releases. Alongside the brand new AirTags, it launched revised versions of the iPad Pro, the Apple TV 4K -- and a redesigned 24-inch iMac.

Even before each of these successful launches, analysts were predicting Apple was capable of reaching $3 trillion. Analyst Gene Munster said in August 2020 that, with 5G and health features, Apple had a "clear path" to that value.

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seankill

It’s interesting that some believe large companies need to be broken up but there isn’t too much attention yet on the Big Tech space (definitely growing attention though). These companies are bigger than any ever in existence, it’s probably only a matter of time. 

I just hope that they get what they ask for based on their beliefs: regulations. Definitely don’t want to see them broken up though. 

sully54

Has there been a non-US company that has reached US$2.5 trillion valuation? My understanding is that Apple is the first company to reach this valuation anywhere in the world. 

I just find it odd that this article states that it’s the “first public US company” to hit that threshold. While technically true, it just seems unnecessary to make that distinction if it is in fact the first company to do so in the world. 

KTR

sully54 said:

Has there been a non-US company that has reached US$2.5 trillion valuation? My understanding is that Apple is the first company to reach this valuation anywhere in the world. 

I just find it odd that this article states that it’s the “first public US company” to hit that threshold. While technically true, it just seems unnecessary to make that distinction if it is in fact the first company to do so in the world. 

Yea. And how can you break apple up?  You can’t be a monopoly on your own hardware.  They have a string of success retail stores.  How can you break that up.? Next thing you know they gonna force apple to sell pc’s? The government does do not understand about technology and how it works.

genovelle

seankill said:

It’s interesting that some believe large companies need to be broken up but there isn’t too much attention yet on the Big Tech space (definitely growing attention though). These companies are bigger than any ever in existence, it’s probably only a matter of time. 

I just hope that they get what they ask for based on their beliefs: regulations. Definitely don’t want to see them broken up though. 

The problem I have is that most are not that big in reality. 2.5 Trillion in theoretical money. When Wall Street or the market determines these numbers are a massive bubble the markets will crash down to reality. The people hurt will be stock holders and employees with stock options maturing now. 

Since Apple doesn’t need outside cash anyway. They will be fine. It’s why when the Pandemic shutdown started they could keep their 147,000 employees fully employed indefinitely. 

Talk of splitting a company up because they are successful is nuts especially when there are many competitors that are bigger even. It’s even crazier when they base it’s size on a fickle market that for decades under valued them. 

charlesn

genovelle said:

The problem I have is that most are not that big in reality. 2.5 Trillion in theoretical money. When Wall Street or the market determines these numbers are a massive bubble the markets will crash down to reality. The people hurt will be stock holders and employees with stock options maturing now. 

There is really no basis for arguing that Apple's stock price is "a massive bubble." It's forward P/E of 28 is actually pretty modest by comparison for a wildly successful company that's a veritable money tree (actually a money forest) when it comes to earnings. Compared to its other FAANG stocks: FB is 26, AMZN is 63, NFLX is 52, and GOOG is 30. Or compare it to Wall Street darling TSLA, with a forward P/E of 129.

And as APPL hits the $2.5 trillion market cap for the first time of any company in history, it's a good time to remind ourselves that Tim Cook has no vision, has been an utter failure and that Apple is just treading water on crappy products and no new ideas until it inevitably fails. Yes, it has been a decade of doom under Cook since Steve died... and I can only hope, as an Apple shareholder, that Cook keeps "failing" like this for another ten years!

sconosciuto

regarding breaking up Apple:

HIGHLY unlikely but iet's suppose... in 1984 Ma Bell was broken up into seven regional phone companies. OH NOES!

But if you had stock in Ma Bell, you ended up with stock in all of those companies. This was well before the cellular phone revolution and the internet revolution and waaaay before the smartphone revolution.

So you would have ended up with shares in what are now Verizon, CenturyLink (Lumen), and AT&T. Every single one of the Ma Bell 'baby bells' ended up assimilated into one of those three companies.

(AT&T took a rather interesting path... IIRC the current incarnation of AT&T has literally nothing to do with the original company other than the name. https://www.att.com/Common/merger/files/pdf/Cingular_timeline7.pdf)

You would be rich AF in other words. I am a shareholder and I am not terribly concerned about an Apple breakup one way or the other, in the long run even a breakup would turn out OK. I don't think Google will get broken up either. Facebook on the other hand... they are a richly deserving and worthy target for politicians who want to look like they actually accomplished something in this fight, and they are a bad actor as well. Politicians on both the left and the right very much dislike FB and Zuck, if things get far enough along they could one day agree to team up on them. (Twitter is not a big enough target and in any case they made the left happy by banning Trump, and they did not literally work hand-in-hand with the 2016 Trump campaign like FB did.)

There's a saying about campers being attacked by a bear... you don't have to be the fastest runner to escape from the clutches of the bear. You just have to not be the slowest runner.

https://www.npr.org/2021/07/13/1015642195/the-ugly-truth-about-facebook

DnykjpRfC6fnBs

charlesn said:

genovelle said:

The problem I have is that most are not that big in reality. 2.5 Trillion in theoretical money. When Wall Street or the market determines these numbers are a massive bubble the markets will crash down to reality. The people hurt will be stock holders and employees with stock options maturing now. 

There is really no basis for arguing that Apple's stock price is "a massive bubble." It's forward P/E of 28 is actually pretty modest by comparison for a wildly successful company that's a veritable money tree (actually a money forest) when it comes to earnings. Compared to its other FAANG stocks: FB is 26, AMZN is 63, NFLX is 52, and GOOG is 30. Or compare it to Wall Street darling TSLA, with a forward P/E of 129.

And as APPL hits the $2.5 trillion market cap for the first time of any company in history, it's a good time to remind ourselves that Tim Cook has no vision, has been an utter failure and that Apple is just treading water on crappy products and no new ideas until it inevitably fails. Yes, it has been a decade of doom under Cook since Steve died... and I can only hope, as an Apple shareholder, that Cook keeps "failing" like this for another ten years!

I know. I am surprised Tim hasn’t been fired by Apple’s board of directors. Gosh all of these failed products (although I am disappointed at them killing the HomePod, I just don’t think they knew how to market it. Was it a smart speaker was it an audiophile speaker) I am like you, although I will never see it as I have been diagnosed with terminal cancer, but yes I hope he stays on until he retires. We have a little over. 5k shares of AAPL and those will make my wife and daughter comfortable after I pass on. 

sconosciuto

DnykjpRfC6fnBs said:

charlesn said:

genovelle said:

The problem I have is that most are not that big in reality. 2.5 Trillion in theoretical money. When Wall Street or the market determines these numbers are a massive bubble the markets will crash down to reality. The people hurt will be stock holders and employees with stock options maturing now. 

There is really no basis for arguing that Apple's stock price is "a massive bubble." It's forward P/E of 28 is actually pretty modest by comparison for a wildly successful company that's a veritable money tree (actually a money forest) when it comes to earnings. Compared to its other FAANG stocks: FB is 26, AMZN is 63, NFLX is 52, and GOOG is 30. Or compare it to Wall Street darling TSLA, with a forward P/E of 129.

And as APPL hits the $2.5 trillion market cap for the first time of any company in history, it's a good time to remind ourselves that Tim Cook has no vision, has been an utter failure and that Apple is just treading water on crappy products and no new ideas until it inevitably fails. Yes, it has been a decade of doom under Cook since Steve died... and I can only hope, as an Apple shareholder, that Cook keeps "failing" like this for another ten years!

I know. I am surprised Tim hasn’t been fired by Apple’s board of directors. Gosh all of these failed products (although I am disappointed at them killing the HomePod, I just don’t think they knew how to market it. Was it a smart speaker was it an audiophile speaker) I am like you, although I will never see it as I have been diagnosed with terminal cancer, but yes I hope he stays on until he retires. We have a little over. 5k shares of AAPL and those will make my wife and daughter comfortable after I pass on. 

Over 10K shares long. If it was any other company I ought to take my profits and run. But Apple still has its best days ahead of it. Long AAPL 4ever.

charlesn

DnykjpRfC6fnBs said:

charlesn said:

genovelle said:

The problem I have is that most are not that big in reality. 2.5 Trillion in theoretical money. When Wall Street or the market determines these numbers are a massive bubble the markets will crash down to reality. The people hurt will be stock holders and employees with stock options maturing now. 

There is really no basis for arguing that Apple's stock price is "a massive bubble." It's forward P/E of 28 is actually pretty modest by comparison for a wildly successful company that's a veritable money tree (actually a money forest) when it comes to earnings. Compared to its other FAANG stocks: FB is 26, AMZN is 63, NFLX is 52, and GOOG is 30. Or compare it to Wall Street darling TSLA, with a forward P/E of 129.

And as APPL hits the $2.5 trillion market cap for the first time of any company in history, it's a good time to remind ourselves that Tim Cook has no vision, has been an utter failure and that Apple is just treading water on crappy products and no new ideas until it inevitably fails. Yes, it has been a decade of doom under Cook since Steve died... and I can only hope, as an Apple shareholder, that Cook keeps "failing" like this for another ten years!

I know. I am surprised Tim hasn’t been fired by Apple’s board of directors. Gosh all of these failed products (although I am disappointed at them killing the HomePod, I just don’t think they knew how to market it. Was it a smart speaker was it an audiophile speaker) I am like you, although I will never see it as I have been diagnosed with terminal cancer, but yes I hope he stays on until he retires. We have a little over. 5k shares of AAPL and those will make my wife and daughter comfortable after I pass on. 

Happy to see your diagnosis hasn't robbed you of your sense of humor! Interesting POV about the HomePod, which got me thinking: since I am both an Apple fan and a "prosumer" when it comes to audio equipment, the fact that I never bought a Home Pod, or even seriously interested in one, reflects my own confusion about what Apple was selling at a premium price. And considering that Apple paid $3 billion for Beats 7 years ago, I do chalk it up as a failure for Cook that Sonos has steamrollered Apple in a market that should have been theirs: higher end smart speakers with audiophile-ish sound. It's no coincidence that Sonos is often seen as the Apple of the speaker business. 

Xed

I don't understand this milestone article for every $0.1 trillion.