By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 23rd, 2024
Apple is close to a $2 trillion market cap, this surge is fueled by recent price jumps in AAPL stock based on its growth in revenue. Yesterday, the stock gained 2.5% but today in the pre-market it is down 0.14%.
Technology giant Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) is coasting closer to a $2 trillion market cap following the massive surge of its shares with an intra-day spike of about 5%. This spike gave the stock an intraday high of $446.55. AAPL stock has wedged all storms to rise by about 48% even with the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic as investors did not lose sweat over the company’s potentials to turn a profit during and after the pandemic.
The company released its Q3 earnings last week coursing a surge of over 15% in the past week. The reported revenue stood at $59.69 billion. Apple Q3 earnings per diluted share stood at $2.58, up 18 percent. After the Q3 earnings report was revealed, Apple (AAPL) stock rose by 6.44% to $409.55 in the after-hours session. The announcement of the earning just served as a springboard for more bullish moves as the company also announced a 4-for-1 stock split.
The stock split which is billed to take effect on August 24 comes after the company’s board of directors gave their approval for the incentive. The initiative comes at a time the company’s stock is trading above $380. With this development, investors would be able to purchase the company’s stocks at lower values.
These recent trends have contributed to AAPL stocks hitting a market cap of $1.89 trillion, and with an additional 5% increase in its share value, leading to a gain of $101 billion dollars, the company will hit a new all-time record of $2 trillion, beating its own $1 trillion it set in August 2018.
Tracking Apple (AAPL) Market Cap Trends
One of the earliest projections of the Apple (AAPL) market cap hitting $1 trillion came as far back as 2015. Thanks to the frequent release of trendy products particularly the iPhone series, the company has seen a meteoric rise in its market cap over the years.
The stock took the world by storm when it hit a $1 trillion market cap in August 2018, becoming the world’s most valuable brand. Soon after, it broke a new record, hitting a new all-time high of $1.04 trillion market cap in Q4 2019.
Seeing the stock’s promising outlook, analysts projected the stocks to hit a $2 trillion market cap within the next four years. The stocks have pulled a plethora of surprises since this latest forecast made in June. The four-year target may just be shortened to a fear week, and at most, a few months.
Obstacles in the Way?
Although the company is under U.S lawmaker’s radar as a monopoly, a pronouncement the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee made following the antitrust hearing involving the three other tech giants including Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN), Google LLC (NASDAQ: GOOGL) and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB). The four firms have soon overturned the damning effects of the hearings on the companies’ public image confirmed by their boosted earnings.
A major cause for worry is the lawsuit from a Chinese technology company Shanghai Zhizhen Network Technology who is suing Apple for $1.4 billion in a Chinese court, alleging that Apple’s virtual assistant, Siri, violates patents held by Zhizhen. If failed to settle, the tech firm will ask the Chinese court to ban Apple’s product production and sales in the country which is currently AAPL’s largest foreign market.
As market observers remain optimistic that this lawsuit, as well as other obstacles that may arise in the coming weeks, will be surmounted, Apple’s bloated market cap of $1.89 trillion, the highest in the world after surpassing Saudi Arabian Oil Co (TADAWUL: 2222) should be applauded