Apple briefly became first $800 billion company this week

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money
Apple passed a major milestone yesterday.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple became the first $800 billion company in history this week, as stock rose to a record high yesterday.

In midday trading yesterday, Apple shares rose to $153.70 per share on the Nasdaq. With 5.21 billion shares outstanding, that briefly gave Apple an historic market cap of $801.37 billion.

By comparison, Google parent company Alphabet has a market cap of $657.78 billion, Microsoft of $530.36 billion, and Amazon of $450.96 billion. Apple’s stock prices have been aided by a recent rally on Wall Street, driving shares up 32 percent in the year to date. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has climbed 6.3 percent during that same period.

It’s a massive achievement for Apple, and especially impressive coming the week after an arguably disappointing quarterly earnings for Q2 2017, which barely beat Wall Street predictions.

Apple’s mixed earnings report showed strong demand for Apple Watch and AirPods, along with a moneymaking ecosystem and a consistently growing services division. On the downside, iPhone growth has slumped, while Apple is also fending off problems in China.

$800 billion’s not cool. $1 trillion is cool

While $800 billion is a giant valuation, however, not everyone is convinced that it is doing Apple justice. Earlier this week, Drexel Hamilton analyst Brian White called AAPL one of “the most under-appreciated stocks in the world,” and said the company should be worth $1 trillion within the year.

In a recent interview, Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett also sang Apple’s praises. He said he loves what the company is doing with its buyback program for investors — and isn’t the slightest bit worried about current iPhone sales.

At time of writing, AAPL is trading at $151.14.

Source: Marketwatch

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