Apple did it yesterday. The premium phone and mobile technology company made history when their Stock Market Valuation hit $1 trillion., the first company to do so ever!
Apple became the first $1 trillion publicly listed U.S. company, crowning a decade-long rise fuelled by its ubiquitous iPhone that transformed it from a niche player in personal computers into a global powerhouse spanning entertainment and communications.
The tech giant stock jumped 2.9 percent to close at $207.39 a share, bringing its gain to about 9 percent since Tuesday, when its reported June-quarter results above expectations and said it bought back $20 billion of its own shares.
Apple has pushed its revenue beyond the economic outputs of Portugal, New Zealand and other countries. Along the way, it has changed how consumers connect with one another and how businesses conduct daily commerce.
Apple’s stock market value is greater than the combined capitalization of Exxon Mobil, Procter & Gamble and AT&T. It now accounts for 4 percent of the S&P 500.
In 2006, the year before the iPhone launch, Apple generated less than $20 billion in sales and net profit just shy of $2 billion. By last year, its sales had grown more than 11-fold to $229 billion – the fourth highest in the S&P 500 – and net income had mushroomed at twice that rate to $48.4 billion, making it the most profitable publicly-listed U.S. company.
According to Reuters, Apple’s stock has risen over 30 percent in the past year, fuelled by optimism about the iPhone X, launched a decade after the original. Also propelling Apple higher in recent months was Apple’s announcement that it earmarked $100 billion for a new share repurchase program.
In 2015, Apple joined the Dow Jones Industrial Average, one of capitalism’s most exclusive clubs. Since 1980, IBM, Exxon Mobil, General Electric and Microsoft have also alternated as the largest publicly listed U.S. company.
One of five U.S. companies since the 1980s to take a turn as Wall Street’s largest company by market capitalization, Apple could lose its lead to the likes of Alphabet Inc or Amazon.com Inc if it does not find a major new product or service as global demand for smartphones loses steam.
Hot on Apple’s heels is Amazon, the second-largest listed U.S. company by market value, at around $880 billion, closely followed by Google owner Alphabet and by Microsoft.
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