Apple’s market capitalization soared past $3 trillion Friday, a historic milestone as the world’s largest company continues to grow larger thanks to resilient profits and product sales.
Shares of the iPhone maker jumped more than 1% to a fresh all-time high of $192 in morning trading and are now up nearly 55% this year.
Now valued at $3.02 trillion, Apple remains the only $3 trillion company in history, having briefly crossed the threshold in January 2022.
Apple is nearly $500 billion more valuable than the next-largest company, Microsoft ($2.5 trillion market cap), while Saudi Aramco ($2.1 trillion), Alphabet ($1.5 trillion), Amazon ($1.3 trillion) and Nvidia ($1 trillion) round out the exclusive trillion-dollar club.
Even after the meteoric rise, Apple can gain another 25% over the next 12 months, Citi analyst Atif Malik wrote in a Friday note, setting a $240 price target for the stock thanks to underappreciated room for growth in profit margins.
Apple would be worth $3.8 trillion should it meet Citi’s target.
SURPRISING FACT
Apple is worth nearly as much as Tesla, Meta, Berkshire Hathaway, UnitedHealth and Visa—the sixth through tenth most valuable American companies—combined.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
Forget $3 trillion—Apple could be worth $4 trillion by 2025, bullish Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a Wednesday note to clients. The company’s $3,499 headset set to release next year “is the first step in a broader strategy for Apple to build out a generative AI driven app ecosystem for its golden customer base,” Ives gushed. Wedbush has a $220 price target for Apple stock, above consensus but below Citi’s $240 target, which is the highest of any Wall Street firm, according to Bloomberg.
KEY BACKGROUND
Apple brought in $394 billion in sales and $100 billion in profit during its most recent fiscal year, making it the second-most profitable company in the world, trailing only Saudi Aramco.
BIG NUMBER
7.5%. That’s Apple’s weight on the S&P 500, making it by far the most influential component of the widely-tracked index. Apple’s nearly $940 trillion in added valuation this year accounts for roughly a fifth of the S&P’s $4.4 trillion in total added market cap.
CONTRA
Apple’s stock surge this year comes even after the company posted consecutive quarters of year-over-year revenue declines for the first time in four years. In a note to clients earlier this month, UBS analysts led by David Vogt downgraded their rating for Apple shares from a buy to a hold, explaining the stock doesn’t “offer a compelling risk/reward particularly” given its expectations for dampened iPhone sales amid a shaky macroeconomic climate.
Source: Forbes
