Apple has become the first US company with a market cap of over $1 trillion. This follows a jump in its stock after reporting strong Q3 earnings that saw the iPhone maker surpass both its own projections and analysts’ estimates, while also making a strong forecast for its upcoming Q4 earnings.
Apple hit the $1 trillion mark early morning on August 2nd when its stock crossed $207.05 per share at 11:48am ET (the stock has since dropped back down slightly). Given the volatile nature of the market, however, it’s possible Apple may not stay a $1 trillion company for very long, or it could bounce back and forth over the $1 trillion mark in the coming days. It technically also isn’t the first to hit $1 trillion, either — PetroChina briefly reached $1 trillion back in 2007, although the stock soon fell below that mark.
“Apple’s $1 trillion cap is equal to about 5 percent of the total gross domestic product of the United States in 2018,” said David Kass, professor of finance at the University of Maryland. “That puts this company in perspective.”Apple closed Thursday above the $1 trillion mark, finishing the day up 2.92 percent at a share price of $207.39. The price gave the stock a market value of $1,001,678,000,000 — or $1.002 trillion rounded up
But for all intents and purposes, Apple is the first US-based (and, for now, the only) trillion-dollar company on the market. It likely won’t be there alone for long, though: Amazon is also on the verge of hitting the $1 trillion mark after its own positive Q3 results.
Of course, all of this is an arbitrary milestone based on humans’ general tendency to put more weight on nice-looking round numbers as some kind of goal. There’s really no practical difference between Apple’s worth of $999 billion and $1 trillion since it’s still an almost impossibly wealthy and influential company beyond the comprehension of individual people.
Apple is among the most widely held stocks in the world. It makes more money and pays its owners — the shareholders — more than any other public enterprise on the planet.
Because of its size and value, the health of Apple ripples through the U.S. economy and its markets. It pays dividends to tens of millions of investors who own Apple stock directly or indirectly, from pension funds to individuals.
“It’s probably the most popular equity investment anywhere,” Kass said, “and as it reaches new heights, it is taking consumers, investors and others along with it.”
If you invested $10,000 in Apple when it first sold publicly traded stock at its initial public offering price of $22 in December 1980, it would now be worth around $6.3 million, including reinvested dividends.
