Apple's share price pushed through the $500 barrier as trading opened this morning, reaching an important psychological figure. The stock price has been on a tear ever since Apple reported blowout earnings for the first fiscal quarter of 2012, rising more than $75/share, or nearly 18%, in just under three weeks.
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Apple is now worth more than $469 billion, making it the most valuable public company in the world by a significant margin. Exxon Mobil, the second most valuable public company, is worth approximately $400 billion after a weakening in that company's price.
Apple is a long way from claiming the "most valuable publicly traded company ever" title. Among many others, Microsoft had a peak market cap of $642 billion during the dot-com boom in September 2000. That company is now worth just over $250 billion. With the reversal of fortunes, Apple is in fact now worth more than Google ($199 billion) and Microsoft ($256 billion) -- Apple's two biggest competitors -- combined.
Top Rated Comments
See? You can win at the stock market even if you don't have money to invest!
Or, better yet, don't wait, if you want to invest.
Or go even higher. This will be a huge year for Apple.
Expect news in a few days about several big executive sell-offs as pre-planned sales at specific prices kick in automatically. Also expect idiots to say stuff like "what do they know we don't?!?" and "Apple is doomed without Jobs!" Then, expect AAPL to keep climbing without a hitch.