Apple hit a new all-time high in early trading Monday, taking the company tantalizingly close to the $2 trillion mark. AAPL rose to $464.35 on Monday before dropping to close at $458.43 (down $1.20, or 0.26%).
Apple’s current market cap (the share price multiplied by the number of outstanding shares) currently stands at $1.96 trillion. If Apple passes the $2 trillion milestone, it will become the first publicly traded company in history to do so.
Breaking financial records is no big thing for Apple. It was the first public company in history to reach a $700 billion, $800 billion, $900 billion, $1 trillion, and $1.5 trillion valuation. While other tech companies have followed suit, Apple hit these landmarks first.
With only brief exceptions, Apple has largely stayed ahead of the Amazons, Googles and Microsofts that challenged its financial might. To hit a $2 trillion market cap, Apple would need to climb only a few dollars (although the exact pricing is complicated due to the way things get figured out).
“Based on an estimated share count of 4.2756 billion shares, Apple stock would need to reach 467.77 per share to hit a $2 trillion market cap,” according to Investor’s Business Daily.
Apple’s market cap feels the need for speed
But while passing $2 trillion wouldn’t exactly be a massive shocker, the speed of Apple hitting that valuation almost certainly would be. This year has not been a good one for world economics as the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed economies into recession. Even without COVID-19, however, few imagined Apple would hit this milestone when it did.
As recently as June, Evercore ISI analyst Amit Daryanani said Apple was headed for a $2 trillion valuation — in 2024. At the time of the prediction, Apple was valued at around $1.3 trillion. Even Wedbush’s Dan Ives, one of the most bullish Apple analysts around, didn’t think Apple would pass $2 trillion until next year. (Ives thought the arrival of the 5G iPhone 12 might be what pushed Apple over the $2 trillion finish line.)
Because the market cap depends on the number of outstanding shares, it’s difficult to give an exact number Apple needs to hit to get to $2 trillion. Your best bet is keeping an eye on Yahoo Finance’s AAPL entry.
As it turns out, even the most optimistic of Apple analysts have wildly underestimated Apple. A tweet put out by analyst Horace Dediu shows just how short of the mark predictions about Apple’s success this year have been.
@philiped Rather than publishing current analyst price targets why not publish the targets from a year ago and the percent error? Here is what some of the Apple analysts were predicting it would be today. The $AAPL price is about $420 now. In one case the price is 3x the target. pic.twitter.com/hfeHsUh1TY
— Horace Dediu (@asymco) August 17, 2020
Anyone want to hazard a guess as to when Apple officially passes the $2 trillion valuation? And, beyond that, how about that (now so far-off) $3 trillion mark? I’m going to go with 2024 myself…
