Apple's Market Capitalization Hits $600 Billion

Tuesday April 10, 2012 7:23 am PDT by Eric Slivka

Apple's stock has continued its remarkable run in 2012, moving up another 1% today to briefly hit a market capitalization of $600 billion. The milestone comes just under six weeks after hitting $500 billion, and Apple's stock is now up nearly 60% since the beginning of the year.

If some analysts are to be believed, the $600 billion mark is just a brief stop on the company's way to a trillion dollar market capitalization. Analysts are beginning to float that unprecedented number as a target for Apple's stock price over the next year or so.

Apple is now within just a few billion dollars of taking Microsoft's title of most valuable publicly-traded company ever, targeting its rivals' $604 billion market capitalization achieved in December 1999. But adjusting for inflation, Microsoft's market capitalization at that time would correspond to over $800 billion in today's dollars.

Top Rated Comments

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whooleytoo

15 months ago

You know what's scarier than a $600 billion company? A $600 billion company whose revenues are still growing at 40%+ year over year (and margins are still high).

Rating: 14 Positives

lowbatteries

15 months ago

A trillion dollars isn't cool. You know what's cool? A brazillian dollars.

Am I doing it right?

Brazillian dollars aren't worth that much, the exchange rate right now is about 0.55 US dollars.

Rating: 13 Positives

Taz Mangus

15 months ago

I would be nervous if I were a shareholder, even if their product and revenue structure is so tangible compared to a company that can float numbers like a bank.

I am a stock holder and I am not one little bit nervious about the stock price. I still think the stock price is undervalued. Undervalued at $100, $200, $300, $400 and $500.

Rating: 10 Positives

imgonephishin

15 months ago

A million dollars isn't cool. You know what's cool? 600 billion dollars.

Rating: 7 Positives

nick_elt

15 months ago

Anyone figured out how to use time capsule to by stock in the past?

Rating: 7 Positives

aprofetto8

15 months ago

A billion dollars isn't cool. You know what's cool? A trillion dollars.

A trillion dollars isn't cool. You know what's cool? A brazillian dollars.

Am I doing it right?

Rating: 6 Positives

LagunaSol

15 months ago

Now its certainly getting into bubble territory, time to pull my stock out I would think.

Just because a company has a high valuation makes it a bubble? Please. Check the P/E ratios of the bubble stocks in the DotCom crash. Check the P/E ratio of Microsoft back when it hit its peak of a $600-billion-plus valuation.

If anything Apple is still undervalued. $100 billion in cash and a P/E of a low-growth company despite serious growth.

Rating: 6 Positives

TC03

15 months ago

I love apple as much (actually more) than the next fanboy, but this is getting a little crazy. There's no way this can last, and I think it would be a lot better for the stock price to stabilize. When it goes back down to 500B or something like that, people are going to be calling apple a fail!

OTOH, I'm sure apple is worth 600 instagrams!

Yet the P/E-ratio, which relates directly to the exchange rate and thus the market capitalization, is below average for the industry. If Apple is able to sustain their current profit growth for at least another year, I think we'll hit the trillion dollar milestone sooner than most people would expect. If the growth would seize then Apple will probably flatten at around 750-800.

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Now its certainly getting into bubble territory, time to pull my stock out I would think.

Define bubble. Most analysts agree that Apple is closer to being undervalued than overvalued.

Rating: 5 Positives

FFArchitect

15 months ago

A million dollars isn't cool. You know what's cool? 600 billion dollars.

A billion dollars isn't cool. You know what's cool? A trillion dollars.

Rating: 4 Positives