Apple has continued to exceed investor’s and analyst’s expectations quarter by quarter. The company is worth over $500 billion in share value and its share price has soared to over $524 per share. If you have read the Steve Jobs biography, you will know that the company, which was started close to 40 years ago, has had a very tumultuous past and this may very well represent its golden era.
When the company introduced the iPod, it was just another computer company competing in a market that had diminishing returns. Twenty years later and the company has gone from music player innovator to all-round technology innovator with its signature devices becoming iconic symbols of success and technology savvy.
Other companies that have been in the $500 billion plus market capitalization bracket include Exxon Mobil and Microsoft, both of which only went above the mark for a brief period and are now valued at $411 and $267 billion respectively.
This market cap is predicted to rise into the deep $500 billion area when the company announces the launch of the iPad 3 in the next week as well as an 8GB iPad 2 and a possible 7 inch iPad later on. This is also building on already-rife rumours that the company is working on the iPhone 5 and will be launching it late this year.
Apple is on a tearing streak and analysts predict that by the end of this year, the company’s market cap could be in the $550 billion area and its stock at $592 per share.
If you had purchased Apple stocks when the company listed, your stock value is now about 1500% above what you first invested. This is however odd as it does not reflect the incredible revenues the company has and the close to $100 billion it is currently holding in cash.
But there may be some good news from the company as new CEO Tom Cook alluded to a softening position towards dividends, something shareholders have not seen for the past 20 years.
